


I Don't Want To Want It

by FlorDeDesierto



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, IronStrange, M/M, Mutual Pining, Smut, Some angst, Soul Bond, Soulmates, but they are too stubborn, everyone ships it, the idiots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 20:09:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15008474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorDeDesierto/pseuds/FlorDeDesierto
Summary: Tony is a fair and benevolent king who just wanted some peace for his people, he wasn't expecting to end up accidentally soul bonded to a stupid sorcerer, and of course, he wasn't expecting to feel the painful need to stay in his stupid strong arms.This. was. not. funny.





	1. Soul bonded soulmates

Tony Stark hated magic.

As the just and benevolent king he was (trying to be) for the sake of his people, he never liked to fall on empty assumptions and prejudice, but the fact that most of his enemies so far were sorcerers was not helping at all.

Of course, he knew the difference between bad sorcerers and nice sorcerers, but even the nice ones were always so mysterious and annoyingly metaphoric when they talked about destinies and fate. He couldn’t help but feel always wary around them.

Today was not the exception. For a land with peace and love, he agreed to make an alliance between his kingdom and a supposedly very mighty group of sorcerers. He wasn’t sure about it at first, but his friend, Thor, king of Asgard, was very enthusiastic talking about how many benefits and good fortune making an alliance with this group brought to his kingdom. Also, Tony’s councilors, Pepper and Yinsen, supported the idea, seeing it very advantageous to have magic users as allies.

That was how he ended up in the middle of the woods waiting for the head of said group, the _Sorcerer Supreme_. Thor talked very highly of him, mentioning how he helped him to find his lost father. _“I think you two would get along very well!”_ Thor had said when he asked him to describe such person, and Tony couldn’t decide to take that as good or bad.

Tony looked around impatiently, finding only trees and his restless knights who were accompanying him. One of the representative of the group of sorcerers had informed him that the Sorcerer Supreme wished to meet him at this specific place in the forest, just because he wanted to seal the alliance in the _presence of nature and the surroundings of pure life_ , whatever that means.

 “Your majesty”

Tony turned around. His knights did the same holding their swords tightly to prepare themselves for some possible attack.

The king raised an eyebrow at the sight. There were three hooded people. He searched for the very ancient old bearded man he was expecting to see, but no, there were only a nice looking woman, a fatty frowny man, and a very tall man whose enigmatic blue eyes got all his attention the second he looked directly at them.

Locked on that gaze, Tony cleared his throat, “Hey” he said, feeling a little stupid, because he was supposed to be outraged for the lack of the so called Sorcerer Supreme.

The tall _not-handsome-at-all_ blue-eyed man and the other two sorcerers made a little ridiculous bow in front of him. “The Sorcerer Supreme gives you his greetings,” he said.

“What?” Tony blurted before the man could continue, this time showing his annoyance, “So he keeps us waiting for hours in the middle of this dangerous forest and then he doesn’t even bother to show his face in front of me, sending his _greetings_ with his minions? What kind of joke is this?!”

The tall man blinked surprised at his outburst. The woman was about to talk, but the tall sorcerer was faster, “Did you wonder that maybe the Sorcerer Supreme is a very busy man?” he said, petulance dripping from his voice and his eyes. It took Tony by surprise because it was the first time he heard a sorcerer talking like a normal person… and also because what he just said was very insulting.

“Oh, and I, the _king_ , am not a very busy man?” Tony shot back, taking a step closer in a menacing way, which the sorcerer didn’t see very menacing by the look of his face. He was rather amused and that just made Tony even madder.

“A king’s job is very easy compared to what the Sorcerer Supreme has to do every day for this land.” The sorcerer said getting closer to him, making the knights unsheathe their swords and stand on guard. Tony ignored them as much as he ignored the panicked expression on the woman’s face and the eye rolling of his companion standing next to her.

“Like what? Helping flowers grow and unicorns find the enchanted fountains of magical water?” at this rate, he was standing very close to the ugly _yes ugly_ sorcerer and he hated the fact that he now had to look upwards to meet his eyes that, he noticed now, had some green in them. 

“No, protecting your reality, you royal idiot” the sorcerer whispered softly with a deeper voice, and he looked so calm and gentle saying it, like, how the hell could someone insult _gently_?!

Tony swallowed.

“My king?” the principal knight called, waiting for instructions.

At the voice of the knight, Tony forced himself to unlock his eyes from the blue ones and turned his back at him to walk towards his horse.

“We are leaving” the king said firmly, “Tell the _oh so powerful Sorcerer Supreme_ that there won’t be any alliance between us”. 

“Please, wait, your majesty!” the woman called desperately, “Please, we are here to invite you to the celebration of Spring. It’s a very important ceremony for us, and we’d be honored to have your presence there. The Sorcerer Supreme wants to meet you there to make the alliance in front of all his people. Then, he will sign any formal way you’d like to seal the agreement of peace in your kingdom” she was quick to explain while bowing respectfully.     

Tony was a little taken aback by the sudden show of submission and he couldn’t help but glance at the annoying wizard he was about to punch a minute ago. He caught him rolling his eyes, which reminded him why he was about to leave.

“Why didn’t he come here himself? And why did he make me wait for so long just to send an invitation to meet at _another_ place? What is he playing at?”

 She was about to answer, but the fatty sorcerer spoke first, “He was very nervous to meet you” the blue-eyed sorcerer glared at him intently hissing _“Wong!”,_ but the other sorcerer just ignored him and continued, “he thought about it a lot, getting to the conclusion that he wanted to make the alliance in a _more special way_ , that’s why he changed plans at the last minute. He’s corny like that.”

Tony frowned in confusion. It sounded very idiotic but the sorcerer was talking with a very plane serious expression and he found himself believing every word.

Seeing the doubt crossing the king’s face, the blue-eyed sorcerer decided to push it, “There is no use. The little king is scared of magic. He doesn’t understand it, so he doesn’t trust it and he doesn’t really accept it as an ally.”

Tony glared at him. He was an experimented king and warrior, he was smarter than to react to some silly provocation, but the instant those blue eyes settled on his again, his mouth was faster than his mind.

“Say where and when”

…………………………..

“I can’t believe you accepted to go to a fairy party” Rhodey, his principal knight, said while they rode towards the castle.

“Well, we have an alliance to sign, don’t we?” Tony said dismissively, fixing his eyes on the road ahead.

“And what was all that about?” Rhodey insisted and the king turned to him frowning in confusion,   “With the wizard. You’ve never let a magic user get so close to you. What were you thinking?”

“Yes, that was weird” said Bruce, his other knight, riding at his other side, “I was actually starting to feel very awkward”.

Tony shrugged.

“He was clearly harmless”.

“They were sorcerers” Rhodey pointed out.

“He was just trying to scare me away from this. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Hopefully, his partners will notify his reckless behavior to the Sorcerer Supreme and he’ll punish him accordingly. Remember my words; we won’t even see his ugly face tomorrow at the party”.

………………………….….

“You have to be kidding me” Tony let out breathless, watching the just announced Sorcerer Supreme float in the middle of the magical people and creatures, towards him.

It was… IT WAS THAT TALL UGLY DISRESPECTFUL STUPID WIZARD!

His knights, remembering the man, were just as dumbfounded as him. Seeing their expressions, the sorcerer (this time wearing a red cape, blue robes and no hood) smiled smugly after landing in front of him. Oh, Tony wanted to punch his face so badly.

“You” that was the only thing Tony managed to say accusingly, looking at him hardly.

“I’m sorry, my king” the sorcerer chuckled a little, “yesterday I was about to introduce myself, but you interrupted me.”

Tony rolled his eyes taking a deep breath to calm himself. It wouldn’t be very beneficial to kill the stupid Sorcerer Supreme in front of hundreds of magical creatures who were watching them intently and waiting for a good outcome of the so expected meeting between the two rulers… would it?

“Well, it’s not my fault that you didn’t mention such important information like a normal person. Why the hell would you talk in _third person_?” he hissed exasperatedly.

The sorcerer chuckled again.

That was it. He was so going to kill that jerk.

Behind him, his knights looked at each other awkwardly.

“It was just protocol, I don’t like it either,” the sorcerer assured, and extended his hand toward him “My name is Stephen Strange, and I welcome you to my land.”

Tony took his hand and shook it firmly “My name is Tony Stark, and I hate you.”

“Oh no, how will I be able to survive?” 

Someone coughed next to them, reminding them that they were not alone.

“Can we begin?” said a bald woman with a very serious and judging expression. Tony didn’t know her name, she just introduced herself as The Ancient One when he arrived at the party with his knights. Everyone around her seemed to respect her a lot, so at first Tony had thought that she was the Sorcerer Supreme, but no, it was this imbecile in front of him who was still holding his hand.

They retreated their hands quickly.

 “Please follow me”.

They followed her to some kind of altar where she motioned them to stand on, and then she began to speak for all their people to hear.

“Today begins a new era for this land, full of peace and glory. The alliance between the greatest kingdom and magic itself. We must celebrate this day.”

Tony clenched and unclenched his jaw, uncomfortably.

“This is your last chance to run” Stephen whispered while the Ancient One continued her discourse.

Tony glared at him with decision. “You wish”. The sorcerer just smiled at him.

The Ancient One finished talking, turned to them and nodded.

“So, what do we do now?” Tony asked a little confused.

“Just give me your hand” Strange extended his hand, just the way he did minutes ago.

“Just that? I thought there would be some kind of sparking show with-” he took his hand and gasped at the warm feeling invading him, their hands glowed and the wind began to dance around them wildly.

“I promise, with my soul, heart and mind, that justice, trust and friendship will be our offer to you and your kingdom, from me and my people.” Stephen said, looking at him deeply.

“I…” what was he supposed to say? “I promise the same”.

Strange smiled, so Tony decided it was ok.

The wind and the glowing ended and the applauses exploded.

They went down from the altar and the celebration began. There was music, dancing, food and a lot of beautiful girls. Tony and his knights were having a lot of fun.

Then, a special presentation was announced, and the Sorcerer Supreme stood in the middle of the party to do a demonstration of his power. He moved his large hands and conjured the form of a big dragon made of fire, which flew around and then to the sky, just to vanish there leaving sparkling dust falling all over the people, who watched the show amazed.

Tony was not the exception, he had never seen something so beautiful, and now he was looking astonished at the sorcerer…

who looked at him, and winked.

He fucking winked.

Tony hated him so much.

…………………………………….

“There is a prophecy that says the Sorcerer Supreme and the Greatest King are going to unite and work together, beginning a time full of glory,” Strange said with a smirk.

And of course, his knights, the traitors, chose that moment to flee and leave him alone with the smug sorcerer.

“Well, I’m not sure I’d like to work with you, because, you know, I don’t like you”.

“The feeling is mutual” Strange assured calmly, “And I never said you were the Greatest King”.

“Well, why don’t you go away to look for such king and leave me alone?” Tony had no patient for that, really. He was happy to finally have done something good for his kingdom, he didn’t need a sorcerer with annoyingly beautiful eyes to ruin his night. He turned around to leave.

“My king”

Tony stopped suddenly. Oh my god, that stupid wizard and his stupid sexy voice.

“I apologize for making you wait yesterday” the sorcerer sounded very sincere, “I was containing a griffin that was attacking a village, that’s why I was so late… and irritable.”

The king turned towards him to make a sarcastic remark, but when he met those blue eyes that were looking at him so softly, he couldn’t do more than to swallow and nod.

“Fine. Treat me that drink over there and call it even.”

Strange raised an eyebrow and looked towards Tony’s eyes were pointing. There was a bowl full with some exotic drink.  

“Alright”.

..………………………………………………………….

Tony frowned, not bothering to open his eyes. He could hear someone giggling and the sound was very annoying. He didn’t want to wake up yet, it was one of those rare occasions when he managed to sleep soundly and happily and he didn’t want it to end. He felt so warm and comfortable.

“Ugh, what the hell” he heard a voice beside him, making him startle and open his eyes wide to look up.

He found a pair of very blue eyes looking at him in shock.

 “Stark?”

Tony just noticed he had been sleeping on the wizard’s bare chest and immediately moved away.

Heavens, WHAT HAPPENED?

There was giggling again and someone above them spoke. 

“My congratulations” the voice made them jump. They looked up to find a group of tiny fairies flying above their heads, one of them was the Ancient One, and she looked very _very_ proud.

“What the…”

“You two have finally closed the cycle of Soul bonding. Since you two had been born as soulmates, the process was smoothly made. I’m very happy for you two” she said and the rest of the fairies giggled again.

Alarmed, Tony looked around, finding himself in some kind of tent, then he looked at himself and looked at Strange, and yes, they were naked. Very naked.

“Wait, what?!” Strange sat up, looking at the tiny winged Ancient One distressfully, “No, no. This is a misunderstanding! We didn’t…! We…!” he looked at himself, then at Tony with wide eyes “Did we…?”

Tony sat up, feeling a sharp pain in his head.

“My head hurts and I don’t remember anything at all” he glanced at Stephen accusingly “What have you done, you ass?”

“I haven’t done anything, you royal idiot!” the sorcerer spat back “I’d never sleep with you!”

“Well, that explains a lot” the Ancient One sighed showing some disappointment.

“What?”

“What the hell happened?” Stephen asked.

“Happened what was meant to happen.” she said, and Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes “You two are soulmates and closed the cycle of union by soul bonding.”

“Soulmates?!” the sorcerer exclaimed in shock.

“Why are you surprised, Stephen?” the fairy asked calmly, “You know very well about the prophecy.”

“Yes, about us working together, not… not _sleeping_ together”

“It says _unite._ ”

Stephen opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. His eyes comically wide.

“Everybody knows that, Stephen.” She assured with a face that could be easily translated as _“What an idiot you are”._

“Wait. Let me see if I understood this correctly” Tony started, with a hand on his forehead, “This idiotic wizard and I are _soulmates_ , and we had just sealed some kind of soul bonding by having sex? That’s what you are saying?”

“Uh, no. The soul bonding happened when you two _kissed_.” They kissed?! When? _Why?_ “You two sleeping together was just a side effect.”

Stephen frowned in confusion, “A side effect?”

“Yes. You see, that’s how being soul bonded soulmates works when the implicated ones haven’t really made an agreement. It’s a very rare case, but it happens sometimes. It seems that you kissed just by some kind of desire impulse.” She sighed, clearly disappointed, “The connection is so strong that it drags the two people together, even if they _don’t want to want it_ , which results in sexual activity, since that’s the consummation of union.”

Tony wanted to die.

“So… we kissed, and some weird magic happened and we had sex because of it, in other words… I’ve been cursed”

“Soul bonding is not a curse, it’s a blessing that you-”

“You put a spell on me!” Tony shouted at Stephen, ignoring the fairy’s deep description.

“What?!” the sorcerer shouted back, “Why would I do that?!”

“You poisoned me with that drink, kissed me and put a spell on me! To _attach_ me to you!”

“I want you very far away from me, actually!”

 “You two are a disgrace” the Ancient One decided, “but I’m happy anyway. Soulmates are always destined to love each other, regardless the distance and differences. With this, you’re not going to make the big mistake to marry someone else, because at the end it’s your decision, but marrying another person isn't good for soulmates.”

The two of them ignored her.

“This means war! I’m going to kill all of you crazy wizards, starting with YOU!” Tony dragged a dagger out of nowhere and jumped on top of the sorcerer, putting it on his throat.

“What are you doing?!”

“I’ll leave you two to your marital problems.” The Ancient One and her fairies disappeared.

“Stark! Stop!” Stephen tried to get him off him, but his position was a big disadvantage. First, he needed to get rid of that dagger. Using his magic, he made the dagger fly away from Tony’s hand.

“What the…?” With no dagger on the way, Stephen used his strength to hold the king and roll over until he managed to get on top of him, immobilizing him with his body and holding his wrists above his head.

Tony looked at him in shock holding his breath.

“Having magic doesn’t mean I don’t train to fight physically.” the sorcerer hissed menacingly.

Well, yes, Tony just noticed that. The sorcerer had a very toned chest and strong arms.

_Oh, damn it, what was he thinking?!_

“Let me go!” Tony started to struggle.

“Stop struggling! Hear me out!” he held him more firmly “Look, this is serious! Soul bonding is very serious! We need to calm down and talk!”

 “I don’t want to talk! Just undo it!”

“It’s not that simple! Just…!” he jumped a little when he felt a friction in the middle of his legs. Damn it. Right, they were still naked. He didn’t need a boner right now “Stop moving, damn it!”

 He put all the weight of his body on top of Tony, who gasped at the friction and stilled suddenly looking with wide eyes at the sorcerer, whose face now was very close to his.

Well, at least he stopped moving. Stephen decided to speak.

“Listen, soul bonding is like marriage… actually, it’s worse than marriage, it’s not something you can just… it’s… would you… would you stop?!” he hissed breathless tightening his grip on Tony’s wrists, but that didn’t stop Tony from moving, creating friction between their bodies.

The king looked feverish, with blushed cheeks and hard breathing.

They both started to feel unbearably hot.

“What… what is going on?” Tony whined confused.

“I… I don’t know” Stephen breathed, using all his will to keep himself from moving, but Tony was moving more insistently, “Stop” the sorcerer whispered, their breaths mixing.

“I-I can’t” Tony whispered back, sounding desperate and looking at him with begging eyes, “I need…” the king moaned. “ _Stephen…_ ”

“Oh, fuck it.”

The sorcerer captured his lips in a desperate kiss. He let go his hands to start caressing every inch of the king’s body. Tony gripped his hair with one hand and the other scratched that big pale back while they both moved like one body seeking for friction. But it was not enough. Damn it, they needed more. _More_.

Stephen squeezed his ass, creating more friction. Tony moaned, opening his legs and putting them around the sorcerer’s waist. Two fingers touched his entrance. He was already open and lubricated from last night.

Shit.

Stephen buried himself inside Tony, who screamed in delight at the amazing feeling of fullness.

They started to move like desperate animals, Stephen managing to hit that sweet spot inside him with every thrust.

……………………..

“What… the hell?” Tony whispered with wide eyes, looking at the ceiling, still out of breath and shivering at the feel of warm seed inside him.

Stephen laid beside him, shocked as well.

“I guess it was the side effect.” He said, finding hard to believe his own words.

“I can’t believe I just lost my virginity with you” Tony grunted in distress. Stephen looked at him surprised.

“What? You were…?”

“I’m not married, you know.”

“Yeah, but sometimes…”

“I’m not stupid enough to make bastard babies all over the place. I have responsibilities and that would be awfully reckless.”

“What about men?”

“I don’t like men.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Shit.” Tony agreed, sitting up to find his clothes.

“What are we going to do?”

“Let’s just pretend this never happened.” The king said dismissively while putting on his clothes.

“What? We can’t just-”

“Yes, we can. And we will” Tony said firmly getting up, “This never happened and that’s it. End of story. It was _not_ nice to meet you. Goodbye”.

“Tony…”

Tony left the tent.

 

 

**TBC**


	2. Friends are here to help… not (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG, thanks for the kudos and the comments, I didn't expect that much love. Thank you so much~
> 
> Some things I want to clarify: The Ancient One has two forms, fairy and human.

“Tony, are you alright?” Rodhey couldn’t help asking, looking with some worry at the back of the king while they rode toward the Kingdom. The king had been awfully silent the entire journey and that was really weird.

“What?” Tony seemed to go back to the present, “Yes, I’m wonderful”.

“You didn’t sleep well last night, uh?” it was Bruce’s turn to speak. Obviously, his other friend has noticed him all spaced out, too.

Tony resisted the blush coming to his face with all his will. He didn’t remember what the hell happened last night but he had a very clear idea taking in consideration the things that took place in the morning…

Things that were still playing very vividly in his mind, and he hated it so much.

“Well, you know me, I barely sleep well in my own bed” he answered with a shrug, avoiding looking at his friends in the eyes “What about you, guys?”

“The tents they lent us were comfortable.” Rodhey said with a nod of approval.

“Yes, I slept like a baby” Bruce agreed with a smile, “Those drinks had no alcohol; they were very relaxing, in fact. I’ll ask for the recipe”.

Tony nodded, grateful at the change of subject. He definitely didn’t want to talk about it. He felt so ashamed and stupid. Really, what was he thinking? Given all his experiences, he should have known by now! Every time he got too close to magic, problems arrived and this wasn’t an exception!

He closed his eyes defeated. He thought though… he thought this one would be an exception.

The king frowned. All this was _his_ fault. That stupid disrespectful annoying hot wizard. He couldn’t believe they did…. did _that_. Damn it! He didn’t want to remember _that_!

“Something is bothering you.” Rodhey decided to reopen the subject, much to Tony’s dismay. “And why is your face so red?”

“There is always something bothering me, you know.” The king answered, ignoring the second question.

“You didn’t come back after leaving with the sorcerer supreme” if Tony would have been walking, he definitively would have tripped on something and fallen on his red face.

The king just swallowed deciding how to answer, but Bruce answered for him.

“He was showing him some magic.”

Tony looked at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“I saw them. I went toward the woods to pee, and they were there alone.” Bruce related with a shrug, “The sorcerer was making shiny blue butterflies for Tony” he chuckled looking at Tony’s astonished face “Just when Pepper tells not to push sorcerers to make magic demonstrations for your entertainment.”

Tony stopped breathing.

_Shiny blue butterflies…_

_Shiny blue butterflies…_

_Shiny blue butterflies…?_

Tony stumbled a little at the sudden feeling of his chest tightening. His memories. His memories of that night.

They were back.

“Tony?!”

“Are you feeling alright?”

Rodhey and Bruce approached quickly since the king seemed pale and about to fall from the horse.

“I… damn it.” Tony muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Rodhey asked.

“I remember now…”

“What?”

Tony looked at them in the eyes.

“How I ended up magically married” he said, so done with life.

 

………………………….………

 

Stephen needed to fix things. He needed _support_.

That was why after thinking a lot about it, he went to talk to his friends, telling them about his problematic situation with the King of Iron. 

The only thing he got out of it was a very excited and pleased Christine squealing like a crazy ninfa, a smiling Wong nodding proudly, and a thrilled Cloak of levitation flying and waving around the room showing its infinite happiness at the news.

He needed new friends.

“I despise you all.” Stephen grunted.

“But Stephen, this is wonderful!” Christine’s smile would be even bigger if it had more room in her face, “The prophecy is becoming true! And you’re finally soul bonded to your soulmate!” she squealed again putting her hands on her own cheeks as if she was preventing herself from exploding at the excitement.

“Didn’t you hear the very emphasized word _unintentional_?” the Sorcerer Supreme groaned impatiently, not amused at all, “And he is _not_ my soulmate”.

“There is no denying” Wong differed, “Only soulmates get soul bonded with just a kiss, you’ve read about it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but he wasn’t supposed to be my soulmate!”

Christine and Wong looked at him as if he’d grown another head.

“On the contrary, he _was_ supposed to be your soulmate” Christine objected, “The prophecy says-”

“It says we would work together!” Stephen pointed out.

“It says _unite_ ” Christine said. Wong and she were looking at him raising an eyebrow like questioning his intelligence, and the Cloak seemed to be looking at him as judgingly as them. “Like, you know, _join_ , become _one_.” Christine explained like talking to a four years old boy.

“Everybody knows that” Wong seconded.

Stephen looked at the ceiling, an obvious show of his thoughts about the exaggeration of his friends. So they decided to elaborate, to help him understand the actual situation.

“Stephen” Christine talked carefully, “people weren’t celebrating the alliance last night,” Stephen frowned at her in confusion, “they were celebrating the fact that you two _finally met_.”

A heavy silence settled in the room for a moment while Stephen digested what he just heard.

“You mean to say” the sorcerer said slowly with a plain expression, “that every person and creature in this land had been all excited just waiting for us to _fall in love with each other_?”

“Yes” Christine and Wong said, and the cloak made a visible nod.

“My Lord” he breathed out in misery, covering his face with his hands. His friends could see the redness of his ears.

“And here I thought you were all flirty with him last night because you knew he was your soulmate” Wong commented, a little confused at Stephen’s unawareness.

“I wasn’t flirting!”

“That’s how soulmates work” Christine told Wong, ignoring Stephen’s objection, “they attract each other even not knowing they’re soulmates.”

“I see” Wong accepted with a nod.

“He can’t be my soulmate” Strange argued vehemently, “I don’t even like him”.

“You don’t?” Wong asked.

“I…” he started very sure, but a flash of fresh memories of the recent events, _kisses and caresses_ , went back to his mind, making him pause for two seconds “don’t”, he managed to say using all his power of will not to blush.

Christine and Wong looked at each other.

“Soulmates in denial” the woman muttered with disappointment.

“I know, that’s awful” Wong said with the same tone.

“Shut up! Stop prattling about my _not_ existent soulmating. I need help!”

Christine gasped with a smile on her face.

“Don’t worry, Stephen, we are here to help. I know exactly what to do!”

Stephen blinked confused at the sudden change of heart, “Really?”

“Yes! Let’s make a list” she grabbed a piece of paper and a feather to start writing, “First, flowers”

“Flowers” Stephen nodded. She must be doing a potion to undo, “What kind of flowers?” he asked, because potions needed specific ingredients.

“Uhm” Christine thought about it for a moment, “Roses! Red big roses!”

“Right” Stephen accepted. Red roses represented love, so it made sense, “what else?”

“A gem.” Wong proposed.

“Yes!” Christine wrote it down, “And music!”

“Totally.” Wrong agreed.

“Music?” Stephen made a face. Maybe the potion needed a sung spell? That was odd, but all this soulmate business was new too, so it could require odd things.

“And dinner!” Christine continued, then she stopped to think about it, “but which one is his favorite?”

“I don’t think knowing that is necessary” Stephen opined, “I mean, he’d gladly drink the potion without food.”

Wong and Christine turned toward him to send him a puzzled look.

“What? Potion?”

“The potion to undo the soul bond?” Stephen frowned at their confusion, “Aren’t you naming the articles needed to undo the soul bond?”

“Uh, no. We are naming the things that’ll help you woo him”

Strange looked at them blankly.

“I’m out of here” he decisively turned around to leave, but the red cloak flew to his shoulders and hold him in place, stopping him from taking another step toward the door, “Cloak!”

“Stephen, you can’t undo a soul bond!” Christine exclaimed, “Having a soulmate and meeting them is a wonderful blessing! It’s even better now because you are not just soulmates, but soul bonded soulmates!”

“Try to tell him that. He left saying we should pretend this never happened, and honestly, I think the same. I barely know the man, I don’t want to be attached to him in any way.” The sorcerer grunted.

“But… you kissed him” the woman pointed out confused.

“I didn’t… I mean, I don’t even remember what happened last night. The last thing I remember is drinking that weird drink Wong made for the party. What was that, anyway?”

“It was just pineapple juice” Wong informed rolling his eyes at Stephen’s suspicious look.

“Oh, I’ve read about this” Christine remembered, “Sometimes, when powerful magic works, the implicated people suffer loss of memory for hours, but the memories come back with the help of hints.”

“Hints?”

“Yes, for example, if you go to the place where the soul bonding happened, the image of the surroundings will bring back your memories” she explained.

“Right, but the thing is, I don’t remember where it happened, I just woke up in my tent and…” his face reddened at the thought, “just that”.

“What about some activity you did moments before the soul bonding? Or after?”

Stephen cleared his throat looking away. Damn it, he didn’t remember but, given the way the woke up in, he had a very possible idea of what happened _after_ “No, nothing”.

“What about the king then?” Wong asked, catching Christine’s attention.

“Yes! He was an essential part of the soul bonding, you had to be feeling very enamored if you kissed him.”

“I’d never-”

“Think of something you like about him” she didn’t let him make any opposition, “maybe we’ll wake those feelings and bring your memories back”.

“There is no feelings, and I like nothing about him” Stephen hissed strongly.

“Stop being stubborn” the group of sorcerers jumped a little at the harsh scolding tone that suddenly appeared in the room, they turned to find the Ancient One standing there in her human form, “Stephen, you came across a long way to become the Sorcerer Supreme, you are a grown up man, so stop behaving like a child denying his little crush.” 

Stephen looked at her surprised for a moment. He swallow and looked at the ground with shame before forcing himself to answer after taking a deep breath.

“I like his eyes” he said looking away with his face red.

“It’s always the eyes. No doubt you two are soulmates.” The Ancient One smiled, “Do it then. Close your eyes and concentrate on that image. His eyes.”

Stephen did it. The only thing in his mind being those big brown unfairly adorable eyes of the king.

Suddenly, his mind opened.

_“The ladies can’t stop talking about you.” Tony said amused after a few shots of the drink Stephen served him._

_“Is that so?” Stephen made a puzzled expression at that._

_“Yeah. They kept babbling about how powerful and awesome you are, it was getting annoying” the king chuckled a little and looked up at him smirking, “Got the entire magical people enamored, huh?”_

_Stephen looked away toward the people that were dancing, eating and celebrating._

_“Honestly, I’ve never noticed that kind of attention.”_

_“Oh, tend to be lonely, wizard?” Tony asked jokingly._

_“Yes, actually” Stephen looked at his drink, hating the fact that he sounded depressed about it. Tony blinked a little surprised._

_“Are you serious? This people adore you” the king wasn’t joking this time._

_The sorcerer looked directly at his eyes._

_“Have you never been surrounded by people and friends, feeling alone?”_

_Tony stared at him for a moment, his expression giving away the fact that he related greatly to what he just said._

_“All the time” he answered looking at his drink, “I just assumed it was part of being the king” he shrugged, “By the way, what the hell is this?” he asked pointing at his glass._

_“I have no idea.” Stephen answered noticing the effort to change the subject. It seemed that the king didn’t like to talk about feelings, at least not with a stranger, and he’ll respect that._

_“It’s not some kind of potion, is it?”_

_“Potion?”_

_“Yes, like a love potion” Tony took another drink, “Or worst, a stupidity potion. That would be my ending, you know, since I’m the best king ever because I’m the smartest king ever.”_

_Stephen chuckled at that._

_“Yes, the most modest king ever too, I see.”_

_“I wasn’t the one who called myself the Greatest King” Tony said inclining his head to the side with a little smirk._

_“It’s not my fault the elders miswrote the word Dumbest” the sorcerer shot back._

_The king gasped theatrically putting a hand on his chest for drama’s sake, “How dare you insult me, you lowly being? I must now undo the alliance between us.”_

_Stephen laughed along with him before taking advantage of the reached subject, “I’m actually surprised that you came to seal the alliance”_

_“And why is that?”_

_“You didn’t seem very sure about it. Pressure from the public?”_

_“Don’t take it personally. I’m wary about everything.” Tony confessed with shrug, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way…” he let out without thinking, keeping his suddenly sad eyes in the distance. Those eyes looked up at Stephen and his heart clenched, “I don’t want to make another mistake”._

_The sorcerer hold his breath. Those brown eyes were telling him so much, transmitting him so much, he can almost hear what they were saying, pleading… ‘Please, don’t be another mistake. Please, don’t fail me, too.’_

_A strong feeling, the urge to protect and take care of this precious person invaded him suddenly. Without leaving the king’s eyes, he left his glass on the table and took a step closer to him with decision._

_“I made a promise, but I know promises mean nothing. I can only show you how true my words are when the moment comes, and maybe gain your trust the way you’ve already gained mine.” Tony blinked up at him surprised, so he decided to elaborate, “You are wary, but you came here with no more than a small group of knights and opened your arms for magic, even after all your bad experiences with it, even when you don’t understand it completely, just because you seek the best for your people.” He gave him a little sincere smile “I’d trust a man with such guts”._

_Tony looked at him speechless. The king took in a shaky breath forcing himself to look down at his glass, letting out a little chuckle._

_“Is this how you captivate the ladies? Your wife should be very careful with that loose charm of yours” he tried to joke, but he was clearly flustered._

_Stephen’s heart fluttered at the sight of his smile. He decided to push his luck._

_The sorcerer opened a portal; another part of the forest could be seen at the other side. He extended his hand toward Tony._

_“Let me show you something”_

_Tony doubted for three seconds, but looking at the sorcerer’s blue eyes his doubts dissolved. He left his glass aside to take Stephen’s hand._

 

………………………….………..………..

 

“Tony, I’m going to kill you” Pepper declared with exasperation.

“Please, proceed. I do want to die” Tony said occupying himself with sharpening his sword, not caring at all about the astonished faces around him after the news he just gave.

“I can’t believe you married in such a petty way. You just kissed and married with no ceremony. What the hell” Pepper continued as Rodhey, Bruce and Yinsen remained silent.

“I think you’re missing the part where I said that I never agreed to marry.” Tony pointed out.

“They forced you?” Yinsen asked with a worried expression.

“Uhm, no. But…”

“Right, just” Pepper took a deep breath to calm herself down, “Just start from the beginning. What happened?”

“Well, I went to the fairy party to seal the alliance with the sorcerers. There was this ugly man, the Sorcerer Supreme, who wouldn’t stop bugging me”

“He flirted back” Rodhey felt the need to inform.

The king glared at him.

“I didn’t say _flirt_ , I said _bug_. And the next person who dares to interrupt me is going to spend the rest of the day in the stocks.” Everyone stayed quiet, “Whatever, I didn’t remember anything when I woke up the next day, but when Bruce mentioned the butterflies, my memories came back to me all of the sudden” he explained, “The ugly sorcerer kept bugging me and then he showed me some magic. I was-”

“Why do you keep calling him ugly?” Pepper interrupted. Tony rolled his eyes. Of course she wasn’t afraid of the stocks, he’d never do that to her and she knew it.

“Because he thinks he’s handsome.” Bruce said.

Tony pointed at him with his finger.

“To the stocks!”

“But I didn’t interrupt! I just answered!”

“Tony, my boy” Yinsen decided to intervene, “It’s alright to feel scared, I felt the same way when I found my soulmate, but you don’t need to worry, having a soulmate is actually wonderful”

“He’s your soulmate?” Pepper couldn’t believe it.

“You have a soulmate?!” Rodhey even less.

“No, he’s not my soulmate and I don’t have any soulmate.” The king denied, “No offense, Yinsen, but I don’t believe in those things. You just fell madly in love with your adorable wife, that’s all” he went back to sharpening his sword, “I was just accidentally cursed”.

“So… it was a trap?” Bruce frowned, not understanding the situation.

“Accidentally” Tony repeated, “He didn’t mean to. He was as disgusted as me because he has to deal with the consequences as well” he gave an especially hard sharpening to his sword, “We just have to find a way to undo this, that’s all.”            

“Can’t you just… ignore it?” Rodhey said waving his hands.

“Yeah, I can do that. But there is something very weird about how it works and I won’t take the chance to get through it again so, yeah, I _must_ undo it.” Tony stated with decision.

“What do you mean with something weird?” Bruce asked with curiosity.

Hiding his blush, Tony returned to the activity of sharpening.

“I don’t want to talk about it”

“So, what are you going to do?” Pepper asked. Yinsen just remained silent the whole time.

“Well, I have to meet King Thor tomorrow. I guess I can try to ask his witch brother about the subject”

“Loki won’t want to help you” Bruce said as a fact.

“Yes, but his brother will make him.” Tony assured, leaving his sword aside and walking toward the door of his chambers to leave, “Now, if you excuse me, I have to see how Peter is doing with his training”

 

………………………………….

 

_Tony looked around. Everything was dark, lightly illuminated with the light of the moon. He noticed it was a garden of flowers, but they were closed because of the time at the night._

_Stephen extended his right hand toward them, closing his eyes. He opened them, and the flowers started to shine, the buds starting to open._

_Tony stared amazed at how the flowers transformed into butterflies of the same shining color, that started to fly around, making a beautiful sight of the place._

_The king let out his breath smiling like a child at the butterflies flying around him._

_And Stephen stared at him, holding his breath at the beautiful sight._

_“You are a wise king, Tony. You decide to trust people, not magic, not swords, but the people that use them. I want to show you that magic can be used for good, can be beautiful.”_

_“Is this an illusion?” Tony asked lifting a hand to touch a butterfly that was flying in front of him. He touched it and let out a little gasp._

_“No, they are real” Stephen had never felt so proud of his own magic._

_“I must admit, this is a little impressive. But just a little.” Tony said smirking at him. The sorcerer chuckled._

_“I knew you’d say something like that”._

_“What? You read minds too?”_

_“No. But I can get inside people’s minds if I want”_

_“Can you get inside my mind?” Tony asked curiously._

_“I’d need a strong spell for that”._

_“Pff. You’re just talk” the king waved his hand at him._

_“Fine, I’ll try” Stephen decided, after all, there was an undeniable satisfaction in impressing the king, “Give me your hand”_

_Tony took his hand almost immediately, which made Stephen smile softly._

_“Now I have to touch your forehead with mine” he informed._

_Tony raised an eyebrow, with an amused expression._

_“Do you need to do that every time you enter someone else’s mind?”_

_“No, but this is the way that requires less effort from my magic, and since you’re the one who’s asking for it and not an enemy I’m trying to defeat, this is better” he explained trying not to blush._

_“Fine, I’m ready”._

_Stephen stepped closer, his eyes fixed on Tony’s eyes, which were looking back expectantly. He closed the distance and the last thing he saw before touching his forehead with Tony’s was those beautiful big eyes fluttering closed._

_Suddenly a breathtaking warm involved him, making Stephen open his eyes surprised at the feeling, finding Tony in front of him with the same surprised expression. There were light, different colors dancing around them, a red thin line of light wrapping them both. None of them could tear their eyes off the other, the deep feeling paralyzing them. Stephen couldn’t help it._

_He leaned in._

_And kissed him._

Stephen shot his eyes open. He did it.

“I remember…” he muttered looking at nothingness, still lost in his thoughts, “I remember everything”

His friends got closer to him to listen better, since he was still whispering his words.

“I got inside…” he said closing his eyes softly, “I’ve never managed to get so deep inside of someone before”

“That’s uh…” Christine started blushing while Wong decided to look away, “too much information”

Stephen frowned at them.

“I mean inside of his _mind_ ” he hissed.

“Oh, sorry. Please, continue.”

He rolled his eyes. They were the worst, really.

“Whatever, It wasn’t like any other time I can remember. There was a strong light, and then… everything shone” he looked at the Ancient One, who was still there, “What happened?”

“The mind is part of the soul itself. You made direct contact with his mind, with his heart, with his soul” she explained, “It’s actually one of the steps of the ceremony of soul bonding. Soulmates are rare, and soul bonding is a decision, but even people who are not soulmates need to have some kind of connection between them. Compatibility. When none of both people is a magic user and when they are not soulmates, five powerful sorcerers are needed to complete the search of such compatibility, they connect their minds, and the first requirement to proceed with it is _trust_.”

“So… he trusted me.” He realized astonished, feeling his heart fluttering at the thought.

“With all his being” she added.

“But… why?” he asked confused.

She shrugged.

“It seems that you really captured him with that _loose charm of you_.” The Ancient One said with a little smile.

Something suddenly clicked in Stephen’s mind.

“You were there…”

“Indeed” she accepted with a nod.

“You knew this was going to happen” Stephen said angrily, closing his fits painfully, “You _let_ this happen” he grunted with contained ire.

The Ancient One didn’t stutter. “Would you have wanted me to stop you?”

“Of course!” he exclaimed, “He hates this! _I_ hate this! I don’t want my life to be controlled by some prophecy for the sake of everyone _else!_ ”

“No one is controlling you, Stephen” she raised her voice as well, making him shut up, “ _No one_ asked you to seal an alliance with him. _No one_ asked you to change your plans and make him come to the party of spring. _No one_ asked you to approach him, to seek his company. _No one_ asked you to try to gain his trust. _No one_ asked you to amaze him with your magic!” she paused, relaxing her expression, “No one asked you to love his eyes” she said softly.

He kept looking at her with wide eyes, her words digging in his heart painfully.

“Prophecies are not supposed to control us, Stephen. They are just the _known_ results of our own decisions” she said calmly, “You two did this. I just didn’t stop the natural course of this blessing.”

Stephen looked at the floor.

“He hates me” he muttered helplessly.

“A half could never hate the one that makes him whole” she assured.

“What should I do?” he asked looking up almost desperately.

“What does your heart tell you to do?” she asked back.

“I don’t know…”

“Then rest. Calm down. Your head is going to become clear sooner or later” she suggested.

Stephen expression hardened, and she knew that look very well.

“I don’t have time for that” he said walking toward the door, the cloak settling on his shoulders knowingly.

“Where are you going?” Christine asked confused.

“To visit a friend!” he answered, outside the cabin already.

“Do you have a plan?” Christine asked from the door.

“No!” he shouted already far, without turning around nor stopping.

“Impulsive idiot” she mumbled annoyed, Wong with the same expression as her.

The Ancient One was smiling though “That’s natural of him. Being impulsive and stubborn”.

“And an idiot” Christine added pouting.

“Let’s let the natural course of this blessing continue” the hope was tangible in her voice.

 

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so Disney asdasdasdasdsaf SORRY. Fluff is my weakness.


	3. Friends are here to help… not (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for the support! And I want to inform I changed "Kingdom of Stearth" for "Kingdom of Iron", Thank you, @chibi_luna_chan for the idea, Stearth sounded awful and my brain was dry lol. I apologize for the mistakes, it's been a while since I wrote english and it's not my native language. Now, enjoy the chapter!

“Not fair!” Peter whined.

“No means no, Peter”.

“But…!” the boy kept following the king down the hall of the castle at fast pace, “We’re just visiting King Thor! There’s nothing dangerous about that!”

Tony didn’t slow down and kept his eyes forward.

“Yes, you’re right. But you’re still grounded” the king reaffirmed, “I left for a few days and you almost lost a limb.” he said glancing at the bandaged arm of his son.

“It’s just a little injure!” Peter insisted.

“I told you to be careful”.

“Well, this wouldn’t have happened if you’d have let me go to the fairy party with you”

That made Tony stop all of the sudden and turn toward him to give the “father glare” that made Peter stumble backward.

“Are you blaming it on me?”

“No!” Peter responded almost immediately, “I just…! It was working!” he assured looking at his gold ring, which had a spider stamped.

“And then it stopped working, like _always_ happens, Peter”.

“But…!”

When Tony climbed on the horse, Peter just realized they were already outside the castle.

“We’re going to talk about your punishment when I come back” Tony said before riding away with three of his knights.

“I thought leaving me here was the punishment!”

….………………………………..

“Man of iron!!” Thor greeted the king with a very powerful hug.

“Yes, yes. Happy to see you too” Tony said breathless and Thor let him go to smile at him.

“How have you been?” the king of Asgard asked giving him a couple of pats on the right arm, which now was sore, _ugh_ “Did you finally make the alliance with our magical friends?”

That made Tony snap his attention toward the other king and forget the awkwardness he was feeling with the effusive greeting.

“About that, I need to talk to you…” he said with his most serious expression. Then, he directed his gaze towards Loki, Thor’s brother, who hasn’t even said “Hi” because he just didn’t like him, “and your brother” Tony added.

……………………………………

Tony had just started with the news about having a soul bond with a soulmate when a very excited and happy Thor interrupted further explanations.

“This is amazing, my friend! Congratulations!” he took one of Tony’s hands and shook it with enthusiasm, “But why didn’t you invite me to the ceremony?!”

“That’s the thing” Tony touched his nose trying to remain patient, “I didn’t plan this. It was accidental”.

“It can’t be that bad” Thor kept smiling carefree, “Who is the lucky lady?”

Loki snorted, “I bet it’s an old fat ugly woman. That’s why he doesn’t look happy with it” he smiled pleased at the thought.

“No. Actually, it’s a man you know…” he looked away keeping himself from saying his name, avoiding any possibility of familiarity with his so called soulmate and opting for the title, “The Sorcerer Supreme”.

Loki’s eyebrows went up in surprise and the blonde king opened his eyes wide… and then gave him the brightest of the smiles.

“THAT’S WONDERFUL!” Thor celebrated and Tony wished to be buried alive, “Two of my friends _married_!”

“Oh, I should have known” Loki whispered as if he’d just had the most awful and biggest realization of his life, “Both of you… I hate both of you _equally_.” He said looking at the nothingness almost spaced out, “It makes sense now! You two, insufferable beings, are so made for each other!”

Tony couldn’t believe it. Really? _Those_ were their reactions? He’d have preferred them laughing at him.

“It was accidental!” Tony repeated having lost his patience.

“That’s even worse.” Loki crossed his arms and let out a little chuckle while looking at him as if he was stupid, “It’s like destiny is kicking your sorry asses to make things right because you wouldn’t do it yourselves”.

Thor just continued beaming making his eyes crinkle, “Just the other day I was talking about both of you! Do you remember, Loki?!” he asked looking at his brother, but not bothering to wait for an answer, “I even joked that if you two made a baby, that baby would be the _cheekiest_ baby ever. Now I’ll be able to see that baby!” he celebrated shaking his fits with eagerness.

“Uh… they are both men, brother”.

“Oh” he said looking down with disappointment and sadness, as if Loki had just unintentionally destroyed another of his beautiful dreams.

If Tony could roll his eyes more than he was rolling them right now, he’d have no eyes left.

“Look, I didn’t come here to celebrate this awful situation. I want to fix it. To _end_ it.” Stark said severely. He looked at Loki, “You’re a magic user, do you know anything about undoing a soul bond?”

Loki raised an eyebrow at Tony’s question. When he realized all the implications of the request, he looked at the ceiling, then at the floor, before deciding to answer…

“Actually, yes.”

Tony’s eyes went wide, “Really?” he didn’t except it to be that easy, so he didn’t know if he should feel happy or worried about it, “What do I have to do?”

“It’s easy” Loki shrugged, “You just have to sleep with someone else, and the bond will just break”

The king blinked, digesting what he’d just heard. Sleep with someone else? He hadn’t slept with anyone aside Strange. All the princesses, queens and noble women had demonstrated nothing but interest in his power, wealth and position, so he’d never done anything that would force him to face the consequences regarding some woman’s honor.

However, that wasn’t something Loki or Thor needed to know.

“Just that?” he asked, showing no concern.

“Yes”.

Tony cleared his throat and looked away uncertain, “The sorcerers seemed against the idea for some reason. They said soul bonding was something very serious.” He informed.

Loki snorted mockingly, “That group of idiots are just being corny. They appreciate way too much stupid things like _soulmates_ and such. You know, like, _Oh look at this tiny flower, it gives nature the meaning of life, we must protect it_ ”.

Thor listened to every word Loki had said with a frowny expression. He glanced at Tony showing some worry, “Are you sure about this, man of iron? I think you two make a good pair”

If Tony had some doubts, Thor’s last comment had just erased them, “Well, I don’t think the same.”

“In that case” Thor started unsure but willing to help, “Let me offer you my help by presenting you a bed warmer woman”

“Uh…” Ok, Tony’s doubts went back.

“You must hurry with it before those sorcerers come here trying to stop you.” Loki said like guessing his thoughts, “The faster you solve this, the better”

“Don’t worry, she’s healthy” Thor smiled at him, “My physician checked her. She also has no ability to have babies, so it’s safe”

Tony gulped and looked away.

“Well, I guess that will do” he accepted, and felt the strong urge to change the subject, “Meanwhile, let’s begin our meeting about the commerce between our kingdoms”

“Good idea. Let’s go.”

…………………………………………….

The principal guard of the castle, Heimdall, standing at the door of the main hall, smiled without opening his eyes, and informed, “My king. You have a visitor”.

Thor had just gone to the main hall to leave his royal scepter to make his way to the dining table where he’d have lunch with King Tony when he heard Heimdall voice in his mind. He turned around looking at the door expecting to find such visitor and frowned when no one entered the room.

“Thor Odinson” a deep voice rumbled against the walls, making Thor direct his gaze _above_ the door, where he finally saw a backlighting silhouette floating in front of the glassed big window.

The man floated dramatically towards him, and Thor beamed.

The king opened his arms wide, walking toward the man who just landed in front of him “Infinite beer wizard, my friend!!” He hugged him…

Or _tried_ to hug him. Stephen disappeared from his position letting Thor hug air and stumble forward.  

“Yeah, don’t call me that again” Strange said unamused, now standing behind him, “I’m sorry for coming unannounced”.

Thor just smiled, very used to the man’s tricks, “You know you’re always welcome, Strange” he assured, “What brings you here?”

“I need your help” he made a pause, not really knowing how to start with the subject, “I have some things to ask you. You have mentioned-” Stephen stopped talking and hold his breath, his eyes fixed on a point behind Thor.

Loki and Tony had entered the hall.

“Hey, Thor, the food is served. Are you join-?” Tony stopped his track abruptly when his eyes settled on the sorcerer.

Stephen felt his heart beat faster, and a deep longing spread in his chest, as if it’d been years not seeing the king, when it was just two days. He briefly wondered if Tony was feeling the same.

He was, and he didn’t like it in the least. Tony walked fast towards him and Thor had to step backwards avoiding to be caught in the middle, “What are you doing here?” Stark hissed standing menacingly in front of Stephen.

Stephen narrowed his eyes at the rude tone. He knew that Tony didn’t like the fact to be soul bonded to him, but that didn’t give him the right to treat the sorcerer like that. It wasn’t his fault nor his decision to be soul bonded to the king. It hurt him, and he didn’t like that pain, “Nothing concerning to you, your majesty” Stephen answered indifferently with a hardened face.

Tony clenched his jaw, trying to ignore the twinge in his chest provoked by the cold treatment.

Thor was now standing beside Loki, both of them looking at the scene feeling awkward, “I could cut the tension with a knife” Loki whispered to his brother, “please, let me cut the tension with a knife”.

“Loki no” Thor whispered back.

“Damn it”.

“You’re following me” Tony accused, keeping his gaze fixed on Strange. 

Stephen snorted smirking, looking down at him, “Why would I follow you?”

“You know why”

“Do I?” he leaned closer, and whispered intimately “You confuse me because it’s like you’re talking about something that _never happened_ ”.

“Loki, Do soulmates sparkle when they touch?” Thor asked curiously.

“Why don’t you find out yourself?” his brother said with a challenging tone.

Thor smiled encouraged.

Tony kept his glare. Of course, he asked the sorcerer to forget about it, but if he remembered correctly, he’d never agreed to it, so why was he so willing to erase the fact now? “You don’t have the right to-” he couldn’t continue talking because someone gave him a strong push from behind, making him stumble forward and fall _right in the awaiting arms of the damn wizard_.

They both stilled at the contact of their bodies, surprised at the sudden relaxing of their limbs and the urge to stay right there, one body attached to the other.

“Oh, they didn’t sparkle” Thor said with discontent, making them come to their senses.

They pulled apart and glared at the blonde king, “Thor!”

“They talked in unison!” Thor pointed out happily.

…….……………………………………………….

“-and then I buried my axe in his head!” Thor spoke excitedly about his last adventure, “and he died!” he added, just in case it wasn’t obvious.

Neither his guests nor his brother, sitting with him at the table, were paying attention to the blonde king. Stark and Strange were glaring at each other and Loki was glaring at them.

“You know, even Thor’s conversations about disgusting bloody battles are less awkward than you two eyefucking across the table in front of us.” Loki decided to speak, feeling very annoyed, “We’re trying to eat”

Tony and Stephen ignored him.

“My love, would you pass me the salt?” Stephen said looking at the vase with salt that was close to Tony’s reach.

Tony narrowed his eyes, fighting his blush and forcing himself to sound very offended, “What did you just call me?”

He startled when the red cloak, that rested motionless on Stephen’s shoulders so far, suddenly flew across the big table and grabbed the salt to bring it to his master.  

“Who talked to you? I was talking to my cloak” Stephen said fighting the urge to smile at Tony’s stunned face, “Thanks, sweetheart” he told looking at his cloak tenderly, which settled on his shoulders again.

Ok, now Tony was really offended, “Oh look at that, falling in love with a piece of cloth. That’s really sad.”

“It’s better than falling in love with an idiot” Stephen shot back looking at him very pointedly.

“No one should fall in love with you then”

“Oh, I don’t know” Stephen frowned and looked at the ceiling pretending to think, “someone once told me I had a _loose charm_ to deal with” he gave him a smirk.

Tony gulped and looked at his plate, “That person was obviously drunk”

“With pineapple juice? Sure”.

The king glared at him again, “Are you always this irritating with people you _barely know_?”

Strange’s smile melt at that and remained silent for a short moment, knowing what Tony was trying to say with that, which made him feel a sharp pain again, _You barely know me, stop acting so familiarly with me,_ “Yes, actually” he said shrugging and looking at the content of his goblet, not feeling playful anymore.

Thor cleared his throat.

“So, how are Wong and Nadine?” he asked the sorcerer, trying to dispel the tension.

“Christine” Stephen corrected, “They’re fine, thanks” he informed, “Wong has been working on a new potion and Christine is improving her healing magic” he smiled fondly, “She’s intelligent as she’s beautiful”.

Tony stood up abruptly, “Thanks for the food, king Thor. I think I’ll be heading to my chambers. Tomorrow expects me a long journey back to my kingdom.” He dismissed himself without not bothering to share a single glance with Strange, “If you excuse me” he left.

…………………….……..

“So, what is the reason of your visit, my friend?” Thor asked, now being alone with the Sorcerer Supreme.

Stephen sighed, “I don’t know if he’s informed you about this, but King Tony and I are soulmates. Soul bonded soulmates”.

“Yes, I’ve been also informed that it was accidental”

“Accidents do not exist” Stephen assured, and Thor blinked confused.

“So… you did it on purpose?”

“I didn’t say that” the sorcerer said with a half-hearted smile, “I’ve been searching in several books about the subject. I didn’t find anything that would help me undo the soul bond and… I found myself not being disappointed by it, actually.” He looked down thoughtfully “The thing is, deep inside, I would like to know him better.”

Thor snorted, “You’re not doing a very good job with that”

“Well, I can’t just approach him just like that. He won’t show me his nice side any moment soon. As you can see, he’s very angry at me”

“And you just made him angrier” Thor pointed out, crossing his arms.

“I couldn’t help it” he shrugged and locked his gaze with the blonde king, “Since you are his friend, I came here to ask you about him. Tell me about him, please” he asked politely.

“Well, he’s a very good friend. He’s a warrior who’s always ready to make sacrifices for the sake of his people.” Thor said proud of his friend, then he smiled and added “He’s also very aggravating, just like you!” Stephen narrowed his eyes warningly but Thor just continued, “Oh! The other day I was talking to Loki about you two, you know! That if you two made a baby…!”

……………………………

“ _She’s intelligent as she’s beautiful._ Yeah, sure” Tony growled while changing into his night clothes, “I bet one hundred horses that Pepper is smarter than any lowly witch there.”

He stilled when he realized what he just said.

What the hell? Why was he acting like this? Was he fucking _jealous_?

He tossed his boots feeling angry with himself. Was it the damned spell?

Suddenly, someone knocked the door.

 _Stephen?_ , he thought before he could help it and now he wanted to hit his head with the wall. He took a deep breath and took his time to walk slowly toward the door to open it.

He blinked confused when he saw a woman in front of him.

“Your majesty” she made a bow, “I’m here at your service”

Oh.

It was the bed warmer.

Tony nodded and let her in, feeling very uncomfortable all of the sudden, “So, have you eaten something?” he asked offering the fruits that were settled on the table.

“I didn’t come here to eat, my liege” she said bowing again.

“Right” Tony gulped harshly, “So, we shall just… begin, I guess”

She waited for him to move towards her, but he didn’t. So, she thought that he was expecting her to _stimulate_ him.

The woman walked towards him and put her hands on his chest, looking directly at his eyes. Tony put his hands on her arms with the conscious intention to hold her closer, but instead he stilled and _kept_ her from coming closer.

She didn’t notice his action, and leaned to kiss his jaw.

Tony startled.

“W-Wait” he pulled away.

She looked at him confused at the distressed expression on his face, “Did I do something wrong, your majesty?”

“No, just…” he looked away, “I… I’m very tired tonight. I want to rest. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have more energy” he explained, not believing his own words, “You can go.” She nodded and turned around to leave, “Wait!” he stopped her, “If someone asks you, just tell them I did make use of your services”

“Yes, your majesty” she bowed and left.

Tony ran his hands through his face, “Damn it”.

………………………………………..

Stephen couldn’t sleep. Leaving aside the fact that Thor almost traumatized him with his insistence on finding a spell to _make babies with Tony_ , he was so worried about the bed warmer subject.

 _Angry_ , he felt _so angry_ at the mere thought of Tony in the arms of someone else, he wanted to burst in that room and take Tony for himself, because damn it, that idiot had the _nerve_ to try such thing with another person!

Stephen kept pacing around his room restlessly. No, he had no right to claim Tony as his, he had no right to feel awfully jealous, he had no right to complain about it.

 It was just the soul bonding acting.

Just that.

Just…

He couldn’t bear it. He needed to go outside and clear his mind.

He sent one last glance toward his cloak, which was sleeping in the wardrobe –or so it seemed- and left the room quietly. 

He walked towards the big garden of the castle. The chill wind of the night reached him as a blessing to his heated body.

He leaned on a wall and breathed deeply to calm himself.

It wasn’t working, damn it.

Suddenly, he heard steps approaching.

Being behind a wall, he stood still expecting to see a guard.

His eyes went wide when he saw Tony.

The king wasn’t aware of his presence, he just walked, stood in front of the garden and covered his face with one hand letting out a frustrated sigh.

Stephen felt so relieved to see him, “The night’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Tony startled and turned around. He blinked at the sorcerer, who was wearing just night pants, his toned bare chest half covered by his crossed arms.

He forced himself to look at his eyes and frowned at him, ignoring the fluttering feeling in his chest, “You _are_ following me”

“I’d been standing here for a while now” Stephen said shrugging, “You just arrived. I couldn’t be following you”

“How do I know you didn’t see into the future and saw me coming here so you came here first?” Tony asked, crossing his arms as well.

Strange chuckled under his breath, “I’m flattered to know you think I’m that powerful” he looked at the sky peacefully, “I was just restless. My room was suffocating me for some reason”.

Tony looked away. He was feeling suffocated just a moment ago, that was why he went outside for a walk. Was this some kind of soulmates garbage?

“So, how did it go with the bed warmer?” Tony glanced up at him wide-eyed, Stephen kept his eyes on the floor, “Thor told me” he informed, “He was worried that you could be making a mistake”

The king frowned, feeling irritated at the violation of his privacy, “Well, it wasn’t a mistake. Actually, it was wonderful” he said firmly, staring at the sorcerer defiantly, “Her _body_ was wonderful”.

Stephen shot a hard glance at him, his eyes fixed on him dangerously. Holding his gaze on him, the sorcerer walked toward him at a firm pace, entering his personal space possessively. The heat of his body was tangible, and it made Tony shudder and hold his breath.

“I came here to know more about you” Stephen confessed with a deep hoarse voice, “I just discovered that you’re a very bad liar, _Stark_ ” he growled barely containing his feelings of jealousy.  

“I didn’t lie” Tony managed to say finally finding his voice.

“You couldn’t even kiss her” Stephen said extremely sure.

“How would you know?” Tony narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You did something”

“No, I did nothing.”

“How would you know then?” Tony demanded.

“Because I feel the exact same” Stephen said, and Tony’s eyes widened, “I’ve been searching every book I could about soulmates, soul bonding, and undoing soul bonds. And I found something very interesting” he informed calmly, “Long time ago, there were two soulmates, they fell in love and decided to soul bond. Sadly, their fathers were kings of two respective kingdoms that were sworn enemies. When their fathers found out about the soul bond, they did everything to break it, without result.” He looked deep inside Tony’s eyes, “One day, a powerful troll gave one of the kings the solution: his daughter had to sleep with other man to break the bond. Her father brought the most handsome and eligible men to court his daughter, but she refused to sleep with any of them. She wasn’t even attracted to them, no matter how good they looked, because that’s one of the results of being soul bonded: you’re only sexually attracted to your partner; the rest of the world are like siblings in your eyes.” Tony inhaled surprised, because that was exactly what he felt, “The king became so desperate, that he ordered a man to rape his daughter, to finally break the bond.”

A sharp pain rested in his chest at the thought of a father doing such a horrible thing to his own daughter. He gulped harshly “And… the bond broke?”

“No”. Stephen answered, “The soulmates _died._ ”  

 “Damn it” Tony breathed out, putting a hand on his mouth, “Damn it. I was so _stupid_ ” he looked down, astonished at his own naivety, “He tried to kill us!”

Stephen shook his head, “Not really. She wasn’t there to rape you, was she?” he let out a sigh. He knew Tony wasn’t dumb, but it seemed he was desperate enough to believe Loki’s words at the first chance, and is hurt Stephen to see he was so against the soul bond he had with him, “Loki knew you wouldn’t be able to do it and that you would be very frustrated about it. He was just messing with you, with _us_ , for a laugh”

“I’m going to kill him!” the king shouted turning around to go find that damned trickster.

Stephen hold his arm, stopping him, “Tony”

“Don’t touch me!” Tony abruptly freed himself from his touch, “Unless you find a way to undo this, don’t come close to me again!” he exclaimed furiously.

His fury melted though, when he saw the pain in Stephen’s eyes.

“Like I said, I’ve been looking for a solution” the sorcerer said looking down.

“Well, look harder” he said despite himself.

“Is it really that awful for you?” he glanced up at him with sadness, “Maybe we could make it work”

“I’ve been hurt, controlled, _cursed_ by magic before! I won’t allow that to happen again!” Tony roared, not daring to look at him in the eyes, “I thought this time it’d be different. I thought I could trust you.” He fixed his big eyes on Stephen’s once again to show the sincerity of his words, “I _trusted_ you, Stephen”

Stephen shook his head helplessly, with pleading eyes, “Tony, I didn’t do this on purpose. I swear”

“Then stop suggesting making this work. Undo it. I want it undone” the king said firmly.

 “Alright” the sorcerer nodded defeated, “Alright, I’ll keep looking”

“Thanks” Tony said, not really feeling it. Because the only thing nested in his chest was pain and sadness and hollowness, and he was fighting the urge to let himself cry, “Tell me when you find something helpful” he said and quickly turned around, ending the conversation. He needed to get out of there.

He just took three steps away from Stephen when his legs felt suddenly weak and he fell to the floor grabbing his chest at the feeling of sharp pain and the air leaving his lungs.  

“Tony!” Stephen was at his side in a second, his hands on his body trying to help him.

“Don’t!” Tony breath out, but Stephen’s mere touch made the pain disappear, leaving only a strong heat running through his body. Breathless, he turned and clung to Stephen wrapping his arms around his shoulders, “It’s… it’s happening again…”

Stephen gulped. He knew, he could feel it, too.

“D-Don’t worry” he managed to say, wrapping his arms around Tony’s waist, helping him up to a standing position, “I’ll just… I’ll just leave you in your room and- ” Damn it, he couldn’t open a portal to Tony’s chambers, he didn’t know it. What could he do?

Meanwhile, Tony was very distracted by all the warm flesh he was able to touch since Stephen was still shirtless.

The king let out a frustrated grunt at the urge to start kissing that pale flesh, “Why the hell did you have to be naked, you retarded wizard?!” he shouted  angrily.

“I’m not naked, you dumb pygmy!” Stephen snarled back, still deciding what to do, “I don’t like sleeping with my tunic on!” he startled when Tony slightly bite his neck.

“Do we… do we die if we don’t relent?”

Stephen surely felt like dying.

“I…” his voice croaked, “I don’t know…” they remained embracing, Tony’s face buried in his shoulder. Stephen knew it was going to be over if he looked at Tony’s eyes. _Don’t look at his eyes, don’t look at his eyes_.

Tony was not there to help though. The king kept clinging more to him, like trying to bury his body in Stephen’s.

“I can’t… stand it…” Tony whined sounding bloody frustrated, “Do something!”

Stephen had an idea.

Tony gasped when Stephen started walking forward, not releasing him, directing him toward a portal. The king sighed in relief at the sight of the insides of a room because there they could _finally_ get over with their problem, “You stay here,” an extreme feeling of panic invaded his body when Stephen started to pull away from him, “I’ll go to another room” THE FUCK?! OH NO, HE WOULDN’T! Tony tightened his grip of iron on him, surprising Stephen with the sudden strength “L-let go!” he didn’t know how much he would be able to control himself.

“No! You will _not_ let me here with this problem!” Tony hissed angrily gripping Stephen’s hair hard, making him grunt. He looked up into Stephen’s eyes, and Stephen knew it was over, “Just..! Let’s just…!”

Stephen kissed him with force and Tony let out a desperate pleased moan inside his mouth. Stephen’s large hands grabbed his ass lifting him up, and Tony complied wrapping his legs around his waist while the sorcerer walked blindly towards the bed.  

……………………………………………….

Thor looked at his brother disapprovingly.

“Loki, how could you?” he asked with crossed arms.

Loki just chuckled, “Oh come on, it was just a little innocent joke” he said carefree, and chuckled again, “I can imagine his stupid face when he _couldn’t_. The best part is that the lowly sorcerer _felt_ it, too.”

“That was very rude of you” Thor grunted. He had informed Stephen about the bed warmer and the sorcerer had explained him the implications. He couldn’t believe he actually _believed_ that Loki was trying to help.

Loki huffed annoyed, “They’re stupid if they think they should undo a soul bond, damn, they’re soulmates, Thor.” He complained exasperatedly, “What the hell are they thinking? Soulmates are rare and meant to be. But no, they just can’t allow that to get into their big thick skulls, can they? Let Stark and Strange be idiotic enough to try to destroy everyone’s great destiny just because they feel like it” 

Thor frowned confused, “Everyone’s great destiny?”

“They’re part of a prophecy. It mentions The Sorcerer Supreme and the Greatest King. At first, I thought the prophecy was about you”

“Aaaww, little brother, how adorable of you.”

“Shut up, you are disgusting” the prince hissed, “Whatever, it seems Stark is that king. I hate him but I must admit he reigns well and he’s very powerful. He’s the one who seeks alliance everywhere. And the stupid sorcerer, well, he has his tricks.” He sighed and stood up, “Well, It’s time to sleep. I really want to see their grumpy faces tomorrow, it’ll be epic.” He said smirking.

“You’re evil”.

“You flatter me”

……………….……………..

Their clothes were forgotten on the floor. Their bodies warm and sweated against each other.

They stopped kissing to lock their eyes, Stephen sitting on the bed and Tony on his lap, already opened and prepared with Stephen’s magic. The king lowered himself taking Stephen’s cock slowly inside him. They waited for a moment for him to adjust to the size, breathing harshly. They kissed and Tony started moving up and down, Stephen’s hands on his hips, searching more pleasure.

Tony moaned. His body felt on fire every time Stephen hit that spot inside him. He whined desperately when he had no strength left to keep riding, clenching around him with purpose, and Stephen grunted getting the message, wasting no time and pushing him against the mattress to keep fucking that sweet hole fiercely, their moans and obscene sounds of the friction of their bodies filling the room.

Tony shouted when Stephen gave a particular strong thrust biting his shoulder possessively. He could feel him deeper and deeper inside him. He was close, he was so close…

He finished with a loud moan, releasing his seed over them both, and Stephen growled filling Tony’s insides, a warm feeling spreading all over the king’s body.

They remained joined as one, breathing hard, enjoying the quick beating of their hearts. Stephen looked at Tony’s beautiful brown eyes kissed him sweetly on the lips. Tony smiled and Stephen’s heat fluttered at the adorable little smile, feeling the urge to kiss him again, but then Tony’s eyes closed slowly and his breath became steady.

 He was sleeping.

And then Stephen’s senses went back to him.

_Oh, shit._

It happened again.

He needed to leave. He needed to get out of there, he needed to magic Tony into his clothes, he needed to leave, he needed to-

He glanced toward Tony.

No, he wasn’t a coward, and he wasn’t going to disrespect Tony leaving him to wake up alone and used. Hell no. He was going to stay, fucking hug and cuddle the little shit, and face any consequences the royal idiot would choose to bring for him in the morning.

He kissed Tony’s forehead because the insufferable asshole was cute while sleeping, and of course he hugged him against his body after cleaning them both with magic and after healing Tony’s back from any soreness remaining there. Sleeping, Tony hugged him back and snuggled into Stephen’s chest sighing happily.

Yep, he was going to die.

…………………………….

“Good morning, Rina.” Thor greeted the woman after running into her while walking through the hall.

“Good morning, sire. Good morning, prince” she bowed to Thor and Loki both.

“Did uh… did King Stark made use of your services last night?” Thor asked awkwardly.

She looked up surprised at the question, and remembered Tony’s request “Yes, Sire”.

“He did?!” Thor and Loki looked at her aghast. She nodded feeling confused.

Thor and Loki looked at each other with panic and rushed toward Tony’s chambers.

“This is your fault, Loki!” Thor growled walking fast.

“He wasn’t supposed to do it!” Loki shouted back. They both reached Tony’s room and Thor knocked the door.

“Stark!” there was no answer. He decided to open the door, “Stark?” there was no sight of him in the room, “Stark!” he looked around the room.

“Damn it. I killed them…” Loki whispered with contained panic, “Thor, I just killed a _prophecy_ ”

“Shut up and help me look!” Thor shouted looking under the bed, finding nothing, “Stark!”

They rushed towards Stephen’s room.

This time, Thor didn’t bother knocking, he opened the door at once, “Str- ”

Thor and Loki stilled at the sight.

There were Strange and Stark in the bed, with a thin sheet over their naked bodies, cuddled up and sleeping soundly.

Thor closed the door, his wide eyes fixed on his brother, his mouth wide open and wordless. Loki was just like him at that moment.

“Well” Thor muttered smiling when the astonishment passed, “they’re not dead”

“Oh, _gross_ ” Loki covered his red face with both hands, “Damn the prophecy, I think I’d prefer them dead”

……………………………………..…………

Stephen woke up to an empty room.

“Great…”

Well, at least he was not killed.

……………………………………………..

“Tony! Would you slow down?” Rodhey rode behind the king, who was riding fast in the middle of the woods, having left Asgard a couple of hours ago, “What happened?”

“I need to get to the Kingdom as faster as possible. I need you to prepare a group of knights to do a search” Tony said breathless, “I need you to find a man.”

“Who?”

“Peter Quill”.

 

 

 **TBC**  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on, Tony, just surrender to the luv


	4. I spy with my little eye something that I ship (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for the waiting. Work is a leech of inspiration :'(
> 
> BTW, hope you enjoy this chapter! And thank you for all the love in your comments and kudos! Oh, and hope the mistakes are not that awful, sorry beforehand.

“So, how did it go?”

Stephen glanced from his book toward Wong, who was making himself occupied with organizing some books. Wong was the kind of guy who wouldn’t stick his nose when it wasn’t his business (especially business he wasn’t interested in) and asking things subtly showing no interest was his way to show concern.  Stephen appreciated his ways.

“Well…” Stephen started, feeling less oppressed thanks to the fact that Wong wasn’t looking at him directly, “I went to Asgard, as I said I would, and I talked to Thor”

“Didn’t like the things you heard about your soulmate?” Wong asked casually, giving away the fact that Stephen didn’t look happy at all after returning from Asgard.

“No, Thor has a strongly settled opinion about Stark’s heart of gold” he chuckled a little at the memory, then his smile wavered until it disappeared completely “I just didn’t expect to find Stark there”.

That made Wong glance at him.

“Not a very pleasant meeting, I assume”.

“You assume correctly” the Sorcerer Supreme said with a sigh, “Stark is so opposed to the soul bond, he’s desperate enough to take Loki’s word at first chance. Now he doesn’t want to see my face more than ever.”

Wong nodded, understanding the situation, “Maybe we can help you somehow? He seems to refuse to listen to you, since you’re directly implicated. Christine said it might be convenient if we talk to the king about it, to make him understand the implications of-”

“No.” Stephen interrupted rather strongly, “He’s had enough. Let him out of this. The least he needs is  _more_  people pestering him about it.”

His friend looked at him surprised at the solid statement. Stephen’s eyes shined dangerously making clear how deadly serious he was about the matter.

Stephen went back to his book, not really reading it, having the image Tony’s hurt eyes on his mind,  _‘I trusted you, Stephen’_. He wasn’t joking about it, Stephen was not willing to put him through any more sorrow.

He shook his head. He needed to keep looking.

………………………………….

“Tony, I know you’re not very comfortable talking about feelings, or even sharing your problems, but” Yinsen said standing at a cautious distance next to where Tony was working on shaping a sword out of burning iron. His blacksmith workplace was always his choice when he wanted to clear his mind or just keep himself away from people. Yinsen understood and respected that, but he couldn’t help but feeling worried “a tormented king is never good for making decisions. If you’re not going to do it for yourself, do it for the people of this land, who rely on you and your wellbeing.” Tony stopped his work and looked up at Yinsen sideways, “You know you can talk to me, it will help you ease your thoughts. We might find a solution together”.

Tony groaned looking down. It took him a moment to make a decision. He took in a deep breath. Yinsen waited patiently.

And then…

“I HATE THAT WIZARD!” he exclaimed exasperatedly, making Yinsen startle at the sudden outburst, “I was having a peaceful day with Thor and then he appeared with his smug face, his stupid blue green gray  _whatever-color_  eyes, his stupid hair that moves stupidly when  _there is no wind_ , his stupid cape, his stupid smirk and his stupid…! His stupid…! UGH!” he made a frustrated motion with the intention to throw his half worked sword away, but no, his baby was not to be blamed, “And he looks at me like he  _cares so deeply,_ and he  _dared_  to look  _hurt_  when I told him I wanted nothing to do with him! And it fucking  _stung_  and then the weird thing happened and no matter how much I resisted, I just…! I just  _melted_  in his arms like a virgin maiden, DAMN, why was he shirtless? ‘I don’t like sleeping with my tunic on’ my ass! HELL he’s so stupid! And why was he not as affected like I was?! He almost left me there ALONE! Why can he resist it more?! Is it because he’s a wizard?! Is it because he meditates all the time?! And how do I know that he meditates you may ask, well, I’ve been having dreams about him no stop and I don’t like it!”

He stopped suddenly, breathing hard.

Then he blinked. Wow, he felt good after saying it all out loud. He should shout at people’s faces more often.

And there was Yinsen, looking at him with impossibly wide eyes, a hand over his heart, digesting all his words. Poor old man.

“You asked for it” Tony said, calmly now, titling his head innocently.

 “Well…” Yinsen adjusted his glasses, “given the facts you just exposed so, uh,  _vehemently_ , it seems, to me, that he might really like you” he said carefully.

Tony huffed, “It’s just the soul bond acting on him”

Yinsen shook his head, “Tony, a soul bond doesn’t force you to feel anything”.

“Uh uh, no. I’m pretty sure it  _does_.” the king objected, “I wouldn’t throw myself to his arms like that, and definitively, I wouldn’t  _sleep_  with him just like that”. 

Knowing Tony, Yinsen thought prudent to ignore the undeniable fact that the king just confessed to having had a sexual encounter with the sorcerer recently, “So, you’re saying you feel nothing for him and you’re not attracted to him?” Yinsen asked narrowing his eyes.

Tony looked at him remaining silent for a moment, then he turned to get to his previous work with the sword and shrugged, “It’s the soul bond forcing me to”

“What about before the soul bond?” Yinsen pushed on the subject, ignoring Tony’s attempt to dismiss it.

Tony let out a frustrated sigh. Before the soul bond? Before the soul bond he found the man very infuriating, just that. Yes, he was not bad to look at, and he was…

_‘I’d trust a man with such guts’_

… quite charming, the asshole.

_‘I want to show you that magic can be used for good, can be beautiful.’_

He had felt so safe beside him it was almost insane. He, who had suffered so much because of magic, was captivated by a magic user. But  _why?_  He didn’t even know him well at the time. He even had given him permission to use his magic on  _his mind_ , which was unacceptable given his experience. What was he thinking? What had happened that made him put his iron walls down? What was it?

_His tender eyes? His soft deep voice? His little smile? His sincere words? His kind shaking hands that he noticed when he hold them to let himself be gently guided towards a magical portal? The scars on such hands telling him a silent story of how much that man had suffered and grew and matured through pain?_

Tony swallowed.

He noticed all of that… but, but that didn’t mean he was deeply in love with him, “I appreciate your concern, Yinsen, I really do. But I’ll ask you to stop it. I don’t need help to understand my own feelings or something. I know what I feel and I know what I want” he assured, “And what I want is the soul bond undone. Period.”

Yinsen’s expression saddened, “You wouldn’t even give him a chance?”

Tony stopped his work again.

A chance?

He might have wanted a chance with that man.

_‘Is it really that awful for you?’_

No. Damn it. No, it  _wasn’t_. Two days ago, he woke up to his handsome sleeping peaceful face. His arms embracing him, protecting him. For a moment he had felt so safe and warm, like he’d never felt before, but then sense had come back to his brain and he panicked and  _fled_. How did he know all of this is not just magic working on him and Stephen? He knew what magic was capable of, he knew how magic can  _control_  people.

His parents died  _because_  of it!

“The possibility of a chance died the moment a soul bonding happened without my consent” Tony said without looking at him.

He has already sent a patrol to look for Peter Quill. He was sure that would help.

………….…………….………….

“Found it!”

Christine’s blood froze at the words and she stopped her work with the medicine she was preparing when Stephen entered the cabin with a book in his hands.

She looked at him nervously. He found what? He found a way to undo the soul bond? Oh no, oh no! The land was lost!

“I found a way to stop the side effect” he said smiling at the book.

Christine blinked at him confused, “What side effect?”

Stephen looked up for the first time since he stepped in, surprised at her voice. Then he looked around, “Where is the Ancient One? I thought she was here”.

“Uh, she left a moment ago” she informed cautiously, “what side effect are you talking about?”

“Uhm,” he bit his bottom lip and looked away uncomfortably, his cheeks flushed.

“I brought food” Wong informed entering the room and Stephen sighed in relief for the interruption. 

“Wong. My dear, dear friend” Wong looked at him as if he had just grown another head, “how nice of you to bring the daily livelihood for us.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Wong asked Christine, who just shrugged.

“He’s embarrassed for some reason we’re going to find out soon”

Stephen decided to ignore them for the sake of his dignity, “I’m going to the Kingdom of Iron. Who wants to come?”

“Why are you going there? You said the king didn’t want to see your face unless you find a way to break the soul bond” Wong questioned looking at him suspiciously.

“Well, I found something that Tony might want to hear about” he said with a hopeful smile. Wong and Christine just exchanged glances at his cheerfulness and  _helplessness_. “Reading all those books finally paid off.” He sounded so proud of himself, “with this he’ll see that I’m making an effort”.

What the fuck. “Oh my God, Wong. We’d lost him” Christine said with a hand on her mouth.

“I know. He’s already fallen in the hole of  _surrender to the wife_ , with sappy useless plans that he thinks will be appreciated. The poor thingy”.

Stephen stopped smiling and glared daggers at them, “Say whatever you want. I’m leaving after noon.”

 

……………………………………

 

Tony was tired.

He moved his head trying to dissipate the pain he was feeling on his neck. After a whole morning listening and solving the citizens’ problems, he thought he deserved a break. With that in mind, he went to the second private place he had when he wanted to clear his mind: The king’s armoury.

Swords, crossbows, armors, and more. All of them made by himself, for himself and his warriors. He felt safe in that place. Everyone in the whole castle knew that place was his private place and he knew he could just stand there, looking through the window, slightly lying on the wall, without any disturbance.

“Tony”

The king jumped, sword in hand, and spun quickly aiming the weapon directly to the throat of the invader. 

He stilled, his eyes locked on blue ones.

“I don’t know what happens if a soul bonded soulmate is killed, but it might be interesting to find out, I guess” Stephen said lifting his shaking hands in surrender, he sounded sarcastic, and calm, but his tense body implied otherwise.

“Strange” Tony pronounced, still digesting the sorcerer’s presence, and breathed in deeply at the realization of his body relaxing all of the sudden at the single sight of the other man.

“Stark” Stephen replied. After a moment of silence, he swallowed thickly, “would you put the sword down, please?” the sorcerer had just felt the fabric of his cloak tensing around his shoulders at the threat. The last thing he wanted was the relic to jump on Tony’s face and stamp his head on the wall.

Tony blinked coming to his senses, and pretending reticence, he put the weapon down slowly.

“What are you doing here?’ the king asked narrowing his eyes, “and don’t tell me it has nothing to do with me. You’re in my kingdom, my castle, my private place. It’s disrespectful to just teleport yourself here like you own the place”

“Your private place?” Stephen looked around, confused. He had thought it was just an ordinary armoury, but looking carefully, it has a lot of impressive weapons he had never seen before, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was private. And I didn’t teleport myself here, I used the gates. I found a man there and I asked for the procedure to have an audience with you. When I told him my name he was oddly happy and  _shoved_  me towards this direction to find you, saying that I didn’t need formalities.” 

Tony frowned in confusion, “Who…?”

“The good man introduced himself as Yinsen. I honestly thought you were sick; he wouldn’t stop talking about you needing to be taken care of” he kept himself from adding that that left him more than a little worried.

Tony covered his face with one hand, fighting a blush. His friends were so embarrassing, what the fuck.

“Right” the king said having sobered, “so, what are you doing here?”

“I brought something for you,” Stephen replied while searching in his skin bag. The sorcerer pulled out an amount of leaves and gave it to Tony, who couldn’t help his curiosity and just took it. 

Stephen opened his mouth to explain but the king was quicker to talk, “This is a very lame attempt to court me, you know. This plant is ugly and the flower is so tiny it’s like it came out accidentally” he criticized looking at the small red flower in the middle of the green leaves. Maybe it has some stupid especial meaning for sorcerers?  Well, at least the flower was his favorite color.

Stephen huffed feeling embarrassed, “It  _did_  come out accidentally!” honestly, he didn’t even notice he had pulled the flower out with the plant, “I’m giving you the  _plant_ , not flowers. It’s an herb” he specified exasperatedly, “As I had the intention to explain before you interrupted me, this herb would help you to reduce the effect of… well, the side effect.”

Tony looked up at him raising an eyebrow, “Strange, I don’t know if you have noticed, but the  _side_   _effect_  only happens when you’re close, and you, carelessly, came here to give me something for said side effect. I mean, I don’t think you’ve thought this through carefully.”

Stephen let out a frustrated grunt in response while looking away searching for patience, Tony did not think that sound was sexy at all, “Stark, how much time has passed since the last time we saw each other?” he asked looking back at him with seriousness.

Tony forced himself to not answer with exact accuracy, “Two days?” he said trying to sound like he didn’t care.

Stephen nodded taking the answer, “What do you think would happen if we remain apart for more than that?”

Tony kept silent for a moment, searching the answer in those blue eyes that seemed to see his soul, “Does… something happen?” he asked tentatively. He hadn’t thought about it.

And then, the stupid sorcerer softened his features and said something idiotic all of the sudden making Tony feel shivers through his spine, “I’ve been dreaming about you”.

The king hold his breath. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

Stephen seemed to like his reaction, because without getting his eyes away, he smiled a little smugly and asked shamelessly, “Have you been dreaming about me?”

“No!” Tony blurted even before Strange finished the question.

Stephen huffed a short laugh, “You’re still a very bad liar”

“Oh yeah?” Tony said defiantly, “Well, you still sound very proud about all of this”

“I’m not proud.” The sorcerer said seriously, leaving aside his smile, “I just need you to be honest with me. We need all the facts so I can find the solution faster.”

Tony looked away considering it. It made sense in a way, so if he wanted Stephen to find a solution he needed to cooperate, “Fine, I’ve been dreaming about you. Happy?”

“What were the dreams about?”

“I…” he could feel the heat rising to his cheeks again when he thought about the answer to that question, “is that really necessary?”

“Were they good or bad?” Stephen apparently was trying to help, “Dreams or nightmares?”

“Nightmares, of course” there was a moment of silence between them, “Dreams” He grunted defeated.

“About?”

Oh no, Tony wouldn’t just tell him, “You tell me first” he demanded.

“Ok” Stephen relented surprisingly calm, “I dreamt you were a unicorn.”

“I… What? Why would you…?”

“Don’t interrupt me, please” he continued, “You were a unicorn, protector of the forest. I was a dragon, protector of the forest and  _your_  protector. Then hunters killed you and stole your horn as a trophy. Then I killed them and took the horn back to bring you back to life.” he finished, “It was very dramatic.” he concluded without drama in his voice.

Tony blinked, “You’re weird.”

“Thank you.” Stephen said sarcastically.

Putting his hands on his hips, the king couldn’t help but feel curiosity, “Is that all?”

Strange looked at him in silence for a moment, “Yes”

“Strange.” Tony said warningly while crossing his arms. He should have taken the hint when he saw Stephen’s cheeks reddening a little though.

“You went back to life, but this time in human form” he looked at the ground, “I transformed into my human form too. Then you kissed me.”

Yup, he shouldn’t have asked for more details, “Right…”

Stephen noticed his reaction and continued raising his eyebrows while titling his head, “And we did some other things.”

“Ok, you can stop.”

“Your turn.” Stephen said, forcing his smile down.

“Well…” Tony took a deep breath, “I dreamt about butterflies. There was a beautiful garden. You were there with me. You let me touch your hands, and… uh…”

“We did some other things” Stephen offered.

“No, we just kissed, you pervert!”

Stephen looked at him with disbelief dripping from his expression. 

“I woke up before it happened!”

Strange chuckled softly and Tony was  _not_  delighted by the sound, “You call  _me_  a pervert? I recall being the one who tried to stop it the last time we saw each other.”

Tony gaped at him,  _how dare he?!_  “It’s not my fault the magic affected me!”

“At least I didn’t let you alone in the bed. That was totally rude of you.”

 _What?!_ “And you have no idea the embarrassment I had to go through when I parted!”

_“Thank you for your hospitality, King Thor. I’m afraid I must leave now.”_

_Thor, standing beside his brother, just nodded at Tony while suspiciously smiling very widely, “Go in peace, my friend”._

_Tony ignored their odd expressions and turned around to walk toward the gates._

_“Lock the door next time, please” Loki shouted at him making him stop abruptly._

_“Yeah, you must do that” Thor seconded and then both of them chuckled. Tony didn’t bother to spin to see them high fiving._

“They said the exact same thing to me” Stephen said shrugging, “Though I sent them to another dimension to fall endlessly for an hour”.

Well, Tony thought, that served them right, but the mention of the display of power just reminded him of another thing. “Oh, and thank you very much for this atrocious mark” Tony tugged the collar of his tunic to show Stephen a red mark on his neck, and Stephen at least had the decency to look surprised and embarrassed, “Now I have to hide my neck with this ugly tunic! What are you? Some kind of dog that needs to mark its territory? Keep your fangs for yourself, you beast!”

Stephen grimaced, “At least you don’t have all your back scratched as if you were attacked by some kind of crazy feline. You should have seen Christine’s horrified face when she caught me changing my tunic. Cut your nails, for heaven’s sake”

Tony blinked, and then he looked around trying to keep himself from smiling because, well, hearing that was surprisingly satisfactory, “It’s the least you deserve.”

Apparently, Stephen could read his expression very easily, “Who is the proud one now?”

Tony decided to ignore the question and the possessive feeling twisting his guts at the moment, and changed the subject, “So, in conclusion, what happens if we stay apart for more than two days?”

Stephen looked at the ceiling for a moment, thinking. Then he answered wisely, “I don’t know”.

“This is not a game, you ass!” why the hell did they even share their dreams?! He wanted to slap his idiotic face! But no, that wouldn’t be very kingly.

“I’m honest. But your information will help me for future research, so thank you.” the sorcerer said very soberly, but Tony could hear the amusement behind the presumptuous politeness.

“Right. That’s all then? You’re leaving now?” Tony asked defiantly.

“Do you want me to leave?”

What did he want him to say _? Oh, no, darling, I want you to stay, every second I live without you is a torture, please stay_. Yeah, sure. Asking him to stay would go against every word he has said so far, so no. No, no, and NO. “Yes. I made my position very clear last time, didn’t I?”

And there it was, again that sadness in those blue eyes he hated liking so much.

Stephen just nodded, “Take care, Tony.”

The sorcerer turned round and started to cast a portal.

“Wait!”

Stephen stopped and turned around to look at him expectantly. “Yes?” he asked when Tony remained silent.

“How do… uh… how do I use these?” Tony picked up the plant from the table beside him. Yes, good excuse for his sudden reaction.

“Oh, you have to make a tea.” Stephen explained, “One cup a day is enough, or so I’ve read” he sighed, not finding any other excuse to prolong their encounter, “I gave instructions to sir Yinsen about the location where you can find the herb, so you won’t need my help to find more”.

“Right” more silence, “Thanks”

 And more silence.

This time, Stephen didn’t say goodbye before opening a portal, and left.

The second he went out of Tony’s sight, the king felt that sharp pain in his chest again.

His mind started to work quickly, while supporting his weight on the table and clenching his hand around the plant. What the hell was he supposed to do?! Run to the kitchen and ask for a tea while endearing this agonizing pain? He couldn’t even make a step towards the door!

Panic started to invade him, “Steph…!” his voice hardly came out, “Stephen!”

As if invoked, a portal opened in front of him and Stephen stepped in looking utterly worried.

“Tony!” he rushed towards Tony’s expecting arms and the king immediately clung to him letting out a sigh full of relief, “but I gave you the herb” Stephen mumbled confused.

“Yes, but I don’t have boiled water and a cup with me right now, in case you haven’t noticed, you asshole! Now do something, preferably useful!”

It was still a wonder to Stephen how Tony managed to be so sassy and bossy even in that state. He had stepped in the middle of the citadel a moment ago, and just like that felt an incredible pain in his chest, so he came back knowing it was connected to Tony.

Tony started to hyperventilate again, and this time it wasn’t because of the pain, it was about his feelings,  _I’m not supposed to feel this, I’m not supposed to be controlled by magic!_  “I hate this. I fucking hate this.” He breathed, his face against Stephen’s shoulder.

“Calm down.” Stephen pulled away and took Tony’s face between his shaky hands, “Calm down.” He repeated searching for the king’s eyes, but Tony’s unfocused gaze remained away from him.

“Make it stop.”

“Look at me.” The king finally directed his eyes to him and he was suddenly aware of the hands cupping his face. The scars on them. “Breathe” and Tony did, “Slowly.”

Without thinking, Tony lifted his hands and put them on Stephen’s ones, gently but surely, making them stop shaking. Suddenly he felt no pain, nor insane desire, forcing him to do anything. When he touched the sorcerer’s hands the man let out a surprised shaky breath at the sensation, and Tony couldn’t help but wish to hear the full story of those scarred hands. Instead he focused of the two beautiful orbs in front of him, “Your eyes. Your eyes change their color. They were blue that night. Now they have some green.”

“It’s because of the light.” His thumb caressed Tony’s cheek slowly. He almost let out a commentary of how much he liked Tony’s eyes, how beautiful and expressive they were, but he found it unappropriated, so he opted for a different compliment, “I don’t think your tunic is ugly, by the way.”

Tony chuckled and Stephen’s heart fluttered, “And what did you tell Christine when she saw the scratches?”

Stephen growled, he didn’t release Tony’s face though, “I told her I fought a very angry cat.”

Tony chuckled again, which immediately made Stephen chuckle too, “Keep talking, it’s working.”

That caught Stephen off guard, “Uh, the weather is very hot here.”

This time, Tony laughed, “You’re as bad as Peter. Poor kid tries to talk to the girl he likes and gets mind blocked”

“Sounds like a nice kid” Stephen said smiling fondly.

“He is.”

“Tony? Oh, there you are. Lady Hill has arri-“

Pepper, his friend, his councilor, his very  _judging_  pal, was there, standing at the door, looking at them with wide eyes.

They pulled apart that instant. “Pepper! Uhm, this is Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, our recently obtained ally.” Tony introduced, expecting a very professional reaction from her for the sake of his dignity.

But her reaction was not very professional when she realized the implications of the title, remembering all the soulmate situation, “Oh” she said blushing, because the man was effectively tall and handsome and she just walked in what seemed a very intimate moment.

Tony cleared his throat, “Strange, this is Lady Virginia, my councilor and dear friend.”

Being the gentleman he was, Stephen approached her and bowed taking her hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my lady” he said with that deep voice of his and kissed her hand.

Tony literally saw the moment Pepper  _melted_  at his voice and a possessive feeling nested in his chest, which was utterly ridiculous, “It’s… it’s a pleasure to meet you, too, sir.”

“What were the business you were about to state, Lady Virginia?”

“Oh, yes. Uhm. Lady Hill has arrived” she said trying not to smile at the realization of Tony’s jealousy in his voice, “She informs King Fury is on his way here.”

“Good. Sir Strange has just finished his business here and he’s leaving, isn’t that right?” The king stated looking at Stephen, who rudely answered...

“Eat a leaf.”

“What? How dare you-“

“The herb, you idiot” Stephen felt the need to point toward the plant on the table, “It will work just like drinking the tea. Unless you want to make a scene in front of the lady here.”

They both looked at Pepper, who blinked not understanding the situation. Tony cheeks heated at the thought and just obeyed taking a leaf of the plant to finally eat it.

But he stopped looking at it suspiciously, “Was it washed? Maybe some deer peed on it and you didn’t even-”

“It’s washed” Stephen assured losing his patience, “Just eat it”.

So Tony did.

And it was awful, “Ugh, gross.”

Stephen ignored the king’s distressful face, “The effect of the herb is immediate.” He informed, and turned to leave, “Thank you for your time. My king, my lady. Goodbye.”

The sorcerer left through a portal before any response, and Tony had to force himself to not say anything. He should have at least said thank you. And maybe he could have shared a meal with him, or something, because, well, they were allies, after all. The man just came to give him something to help him and Tony just dismissed him.

Tony swallowed, as if he could swallow his guilt that way. 

He remained in silence looking at the spot where the sorcerer disappeared so distractedly, he didn’t notice Pepper watching him with analytical eyes, “So,” she said, finally getting his attention, “your soulmate”

“He’s not my soulmate” he stated stubbornly.

The woman just smiled, “For all the negative things you say about him, you two seemed very comfortable around each other.”

“It was the magic controlling my brain,” he said grabbing the herb, avoiding her amused eyes.

“No wonder you like him,” she said thoughtfully, “He’s very handsome.”

He looked at her flatly. Pepper just smiled.

 

………………………..………

 

“How did it go?” Wong asked when Stephen approached him.

“As good as I expected” he said walking smugly as if it went fantastically but when he stopped in front of him he just said in a very exasperated way “I was kicked out”.

“Nice” Wong said sarcastically.

Stephen just shook his head, “Let’s go” he motioned towards the gates of the citadel, but Wong didn’t move.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. Christine went to the market to buy some supplies” Wong started to walk toward another direction, “Find something to do with your time. See you later.”

“What? What are you going to do?”

“Not going to babysit you, that’s for sure”

So, Stephen was left alone in front of the castle. 

 “Fantastic”

 

……………………………………..

 

“Your majesty” the woman bowed when the king approached.

“Lady Hill. Welcome” he kissed her hand with courtesy, “You’re as beautiful as always”

She ignored the flirting, “It’s an honor to be in your marvelous kingdom, King Stark” she said nodding, “King Fury is very excited about this alliance”.

“It really surprised me when I received his message saying he wanted to sign an alliance.” he said with sincerity, and with tangible suspicion, “I’ve spent years trying to convince him, I’m curious on what changed his mind”.

The lady didn’t seem bothered by his wary attitude, instead she just answered with a excited expression, “Oh, when he heard you had soul bonded to your soulmate he just couldn’t say no.” Tony’s eyes opened wide in horror, and if she noticed, she pretended not to, and just continued talking in a very sweet way, “Congratulations, by the way, I can’t imagine the happiness that having a soulmate would be”

“W-What?” Tony stuttered, while Pepper remained wordless by his side, “How do you… how does he…?” he forced himself to calm down, “How does he know about it?”

“Oh, you know how King Fury is. He has friends everywhere, and the gossip about your soul bonding spread between magical people really fast. It wasn’t long until the king learned about it.” Of course, the king of Shield was well known for his ability to learn about  _everything_ , he had eyes everywhere, much for a one-eyed man, “He is very interested in meeting the Sorcerer Supreme, I’m sure you two make such a pair”

Tony swallowed, “I thought Fury had an opinion against magical creatures and magic in general”

“His point of view changed a lot over the years” the woman assured, “He knows you’re a great king but he always considered you a very instable person, but now you have your soulmate to make you whole and both of you found the balance in the other.” She smiled sweetly, “I’m so happy for you. It’s so beautiful”  

Ok, Tony had had enough.

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, lady Hill, I’m-“

“My king!!” Pepper interrupted him, “May I talk to you for a moment? I’m sorry,” she said to the other woman, “I just remembered something about the party tonight that needs to be sorted out” she dragged Tony away to a considerable distance, “Tony, don’t!”

“What?” the king asked confused.

“Don’t you understand the situation?” she whispered, “She said it herself, King Fury accepted the alliance  _because_  you found your soulmate!”

“He’s not my-”

“Listen! He’s coming here to sign an alliance because,  _and only because_ , he knows you had soul bonded to your soulmate! Do you understand? Now, imagine what will happen if you just go and tell them it was accidental and you’re trying to break it!”

He closed his eyes resignedly, “He won’t sign it” he breathed.

“Yes!”

Lady Hill approached them, “Is something the matter?”

“No” Pepper said firmly, “Everything is alright”

“So,” the visitor directed her eyes to Tony, “where is your husband?”

“He… he must be with Peter right now. Training” he said nodding to himself. Pepper resisted the urge to roll her eyes, because, seriously, Tony was very bad at lying.

But Hill just smiled, “Oh, so he’s already taking the job of a dad very seriously, uh? That’s adorable” she titled her head and smiled wider at the sight of the king’s cheeks reddening at her last statement, “I’d like to meet him. The title makes him sound very mysterious. Is he handsome?” she asked sounding very interested.

Tony narrowed his eyes and straightened his body lifting his chin, “Yes, he’s handsome, intelligent, talented, and most importantly,  _mine_ ”.

“Oh my!” Hill giggled, while Pepper looked at him agape, “I figured you’d be the possessive type, your majesty.”

“I’m not more possessive than him, though.” He said casually, “You should have seen how he got when he thought I was being too kind with a lady. He’s like a wolf, he even bit me” he showed her the point where his neck and shoulder join, the point with a very visible bite.

“Oh my gosh!” Hill exclaimed truly impressed.

Before she proceeded to more inspection, the king motioned a servant to come closer and gave indications, “Now, a servant will show you your room, my lady. Make yourself comfortable. I’m going to see if my husband and my son had finished their training and I’ll introduce them to you really soon”

“Thank you” she said bowing and followed the servant.

“Tony, what the hell?!” Pepper shouted when the other woman got out of sight.

“I was just acting” Tony assured carelessly, but deep inside he was suffering a swirl of emotions.

“Tony, I’ve known you for years and I know for sure that you’re a very very  _very_  bad liar, and what you said right now sounded very genuine!” she looked at his eyes carefully, “And that bite on your neck is real!”

Knowing his only way out of that situation was planting the awkwardness on Pepper, he followed that path, “To be fair, I bit him, too. Just not that hard”

His plan worked, “Oh no! No no no and NO! I’m not listening to it! I don’t wanna know!”

“It was the magic controlling me.”

“It certainly didn’t sound like it” she said exasperatedly, “So, what are we going to do? Where is he?”

“I don’t know” he sighed, “He left, remember?”

“Call him!” she urged.

“How am I supposed to do that?” he looked at her impatiently.

“Don’t you have some kind of, I don’t know, soulmate mental connection or something?”

“No…” he had a moment of doubt, “as far as I know.”

“Try it”

 _Stephen, can you hear me?_  He talked in his mind. When there was no response, he grunted frustrated, “This is ridiculous” he breathed, just in time to see Yinsen passing by, “Yinsen” he called, making the man stop.

“Yes, my liege?” he asked innocently.

“I need to be taken care of, uh?” Tony said with judging eyes.

“Yes, you do.” Yinsen answered with certainty, “And you seem healthier”

“I wasn’t sick”

“Is your head still hurting?”

Tony opened his mouth to answer but closed it all of the sudden, surprised at the fact that Yinsen knew he was having a headache and the fact that, as he just realized, he didn’t feel any ache anymore.

“There you go” Yinsen nodded with self-satisfaction dripping from his smirk and turned to continue walking.

“I need to find him!” Tony blurted. The king sighed when the other man spun to look at him again, “Do you… do you know how to?”

“Yes” he said with a serious expression, “You have to take a deep breath” Tony automatically did as he said, “close your eyes, concentrate very hard” the king closed his eyes, “and walk towards the stables. I saw him there some minutes ago.”

Tony opened his eyes to icily glare at him while Pepper resisted the urge to laugh.

 

………………………………………………..

 

He gave the horse a soft stroke on its face and smiled. Sometimes, he missed the times of his old life, not the one where he was the best physician of the land, but the one where everything was simple and calm, where his highest excitement was riding a horse through the green fields of his home.

“Peter, be careful!”

Stephen glanced towards the voice. He saw a woman looking upwards with a worried expression and a hand on her chest. He looked in the same direction and his eyes widened when he saw a boy climbing one of the towers of the castle just by putting his hands on the wall. He was apparently trying to grab a wrap that flew with the wind and got stuck with stick of one of the flags of the castle.

It was impressive how the boy just kept unnaturally sticking to the wall.

Until he didn’t anymore.

“Woah!”

“Peter!”

Stephen moved his hands fast, casting a floating shield that caught the boy in free fall. The boy remained stunned as the shield lowered him slowly towards the ground. The woman ran to him, “Are you okey?” she got his face between her hands to check him.

“Yes, I’m fine, aunt” the boy assured, his eyes not leaving the sorcerer who was approaching. “Who are you?” he stood up positioning himself in front of the woman to protect her.

“The one who just saved your life. You’re welcome” Stephen said calmly.

“Oh, sorry. Yeah, thank you, uhm” he looked at the orange shield vanishing, “A wizard” he said stunned.

“Sorcerer” Stephen corrected, “I’m Stephen Strange.”

 “My name is May Parker” the woman introduced herself, “and this is Peter”

Stephen’s eyebrows shot up, “King Stark’s son?”

“Yes, well, he adopted me when I was ten.” Peter clarified, “As the king he’s a very busy person, so my aunt May is the one who remains as my principal parental figure,” he said smiling at the woman, the he looked at the sorcerer. “It’s the first time I see a sorcerer in Iron”

“Don’t worry. I just came here to talk some business with King Stark. We formed an alliance recently.” He said, no willing to explain any further than that, “I’m the Sorcerer Supreme.”

The title seemed to erase any doubt or distrust in Peter, “Really?!” he said with smiling with excitement, “You were the one who made a fairy party. King Stark wouldn’t stop talking about you!”

“Really?” the sorcerer looked at him surprised.

“Yes! He said you were very annoying!” the boy said, as if that was a compliment.

“Peter!” May reprimanded.

“But it’s true!” Peter defended.

Stephen rolled his eyes, and decided to change the subject, “You were up there sticking to the wall, how did you do that?”

“Uhm,” Peter looked at May, like asking for confirmation. She nodded, “It’s because of a magical ring I have.” He said showing Stephen his right hand, “it’s magically stuck to my finger so I can’t pull it out. The thing is, it gives me a lot of strength and the ability to jump high and walk on walls and ceilings… but, uh, it’s defective” Stephen raised an eyebrow, “because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The worst part is when I’m using it and it stops working all of the sudden. I don’t know what to do.”

“The Spider Blessing” Stephen whispered examining the ring, “I’ve read about it. I know what’s the problem.”

Peter and May gasped, “Really?!”  

“Yes, it’s in the wrong finger. It should be the index.”

“What?! Just that?! But…!” he tried to pull it out, “I can’t take it off!!”

“It’s a magical accessory, you’re not supposed to be able to take it off by physical force, you need to use magic” Stephen explained, “the ring has selected you as its chosen owner, so I can’t take it out, but I can use a spell to move it to the other finger, if you let me”

“YES!” Peter shouted, “I… I mean,” he looked at May, and she just smiled and nodded, “Yes”

Stephen supposed it wouldn’t do any harm to not having Tony’s direct authorization since the aunt was approving it, so he proceeded with the spell.

Peter kept his eyes in his hand all the time, amazed when he saw the ring disappear and appear again in the other finger. It lasted no more than a few seconds.

“That’s it?” he sked blinking.

“Try it” Stephen nodded.

Peter approached a cart that was close to them, he leaned, put his hands under it, and lifted it up like it was nothing.

“YES!” he exclaimed. He looked at his aunt to see her reaction. She was smiling and on the edge of tears of happiness. Peter used to get hurt a lot because of that ring, so this was a blessing for her. Peter smiled widely at her and then looked at Stephen, “Where have you been all my life?”

“Fighting dragons” Stephen answered with a plain expression.

“Really?!”

“No. Dragons are nice”

“Oh, right” Peter chuckled “Thank you so much. This means a lot to me!”

“You’re welcome” Stephen nodded, “Well, I have to go. It was nice to meet you both” he thought prudent to get away now. The least he needed was to get too familiar with Tony’s family. “Don’t get scared when you wake up with eight eyes” he recommended walking away.

“What?!” Peter opened his eyes in horror. Stephen looked at him over his shoulder, smirked and winked. “Hey!”

Strange continued walking his path, vaguely wondering if Wong and Christine finished their sightseeing tour already.

“Wait! Sir Sorcerer!”

Stephen sighed exasperatedly “Just call me Stephen. Please” he said turning around to see the boy approaching.

“Sir Stephen” Peter corrected himself. Stephen thought that was a little better, at least, “may I ask you something?” he said in all seriousness.

Stephen nodded, wishing the boy wasn’t there to ask things about Tony or something related to him.

“Are you single?”

There was a moment of silence.

“You’re too young for me.” The sorcerer said looking at him flatly.

“No! Not for me!” Peter clarified blushing, “My aunt!”

Stephen raised an eyebrow. Ok, he didn’t expect that either, “You just met me ten minutes ago”

“I know! It’s just…! There’s going to be a party tonight, and I don’t want my aunt to dance with any of the brute knights that had been trying to court her. And you seem like a nice and respectful man”

“How do you know I’m not some kind of pervert assassin?”

Peter frowned very confused, “My father wouldn’t have made an alliance with you if you were. I mean, you just helped me to fix this” he said showing his ring.

“Maybe I cursed it. You don’t know that”

He sounded serious and sarcastic at the same time, but sadly, the boy was not stupid to not notice he was just trying to escape the situation.

“Please, it’s just a dance”

“I was not invited.” Stephen objected, “I don’t even know what party you’re talking about.”

“You were not?” Peter looked honestly surprised, “It’s a party in honor of the alliance with King Fury.”

“Like I said, I wasn’t invited. Sorry”

“But you’re one of our allies,” the boy wouldn’t let him go that easily, “You don’t need an invitation. You’re welcome whenever you want. Please, she will be all alone.” he pleaded with those puppy eyes of his.

But Stephen had met the  _biggest_  puppy eyes ever (Tony’s eyes) before, so he was unaffected.

“Why don’t  _you_  dance with her?” the man asked unconvinced.

The boy suddenly blushed, “I… I was planning on dancing with someone else.” He sighed looking a little sad, “I… I don’t even know if she’ll accept to dance with me though.”

Stephen looked around for an exit. He was not good with this kind of things, but the boy clearly wanted to start that kind of conversation.

“Why? She doesn’t like you?” he asked helplessly.

“No, well, yes. No. I mean… It’s hard to explain. Have you ever known a person who is amazing, very intelligent, very beautiful, very caring, but hide their feelings behind sarcastic comments and pretended indifference?”

Stephen’s expression was very comical compared to his normally calm behavior. The sorcerer blinked and shook his head no, thinking  _Oh my God, I have the same problems of a teenager_.

“Well, I do. And I don’t know how to act towards her.” Peter looked at him like expecting some kind of advice.

“Believe me, I’m not the best to help.”

“I just need you to stay with my aunt to keep those idiots away, please!”

Stephen decided to try another way out, “I’m not single.”

But Peter was stubborn “It doesn’t matter, as friends!”

Stephen looked away, thinking. He could imagine Tony’s distressed face at seeing him in his party. Maybe it was destiny working on it after all, it could be a good opportunity to be close to him, and he couldn’t blame him because he would be just doing a favor for his son.

“Fine.”

“Yes!” Peter celebrated. But before he could give his thanks, they both heard a voice from afar.

“Stephen!”

Stephen looked up, finding Tony walking fast towards him. Instinctively, the sorcerer approached to meet him half way.  He couldn’t help feeling worried given Tony’s very anxious expression.

“I need you!” the king said out of breath, clenching one fist on Stephen’s tunic.

Stephen blinked confused and glanced sideways towards Peter, “You didn’t eat the leaf?” he whispered.

“What? It’s not about that!” the king hissed fighting a blush, “And you saw me eating it!”

“Well, how could I know for sure? Maybe you spat it out. You act like a child sometimes.”

Tony was about to answer sassier than that, but then looked at Peter standing behind Stephen, very close to him and with that face that Tony recognized as the ‘Please, father, don’t get angry at this person, they’re my friend’ face.  

“You two know each other?” Tony asked crossing his arms defiantly.

“We just met.” Stephen clarified. Peter nodded confirming it, but he never left that ‘be nice with my questionable friends, please’ expression, making Tony wonder what was that Stephen did to gain Peter’s trust in minutes.

“Sir Stephen accepted to accompany my aunt to the party tonight.” The boy said smiled innocently.

Tony looked at Stephen lifting an eyebrow, “Is that so?” Stephen didn’t say anything, but his eyes remained firm on the brown ones, almost defiant. That made Tony say his next words, “I’m sorry kid, he can’t do that.” he stated not turning his eyes from the sorcerer, “He has to dance with someone else.”

 _That_  made Stephen frown and narrow his eyes.

“His wife?” Peter asked confused.

“No.” Tony frowned at him, “Me” he said pointing at himself, then he hooked an arm to Stephen’s arm and smiled delighted at both Peter and Stephen’s astonished faces. “Say Hello to your new dad, Peter”

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. Fury ships it, too :v


	5. I spy with my little eye something that I ship (part 2)

Peter looked franticly between Tony and Stephen ever since the king started talking about what had happened and about his _brilliant_ plan.

But the man talked so quickly and so full of sarcasms and metaphors that Peter had a hard time understanding what was really going on.

Okay. First, he got that his adoptive father was married. Like, magically married. He didn’t really get how it happened, though; Tony didn’t clarify that part. He made it sound like it was an unfortunate accident; he talked in a way that Peter could only imagine him and Stephen walking and scoffing at each other, angrily lost in each other’s eyes, and then tripped and fell into a magical hole on the ground, ending up married there somehow. That was really sad and hilarious at the same time.

Second, he got that King Fury _liked_ their marriage. He’d met Fury only once or twice, but his authoritative _eye_ was still very fresh in his mind. He remembered the man being a very stoic person, so he could barely picture him being all excited about someone else’s union. Nevertheless, Tony seemed very sure about the statements he was making.

And finally, but not less important, he got that Tony was _desperate_. Desperate enough to bring his closer friends (Rodhey, Pepper, Yinsen, Bruce, May and Peter himself) together to explain the situation and ask them to play along.

The plan was simple: Pretend Tony and Stephen were a happy _happy_ couple in front of King Fury. For the sake of the kingdom, he repeated more than once.

Tony’s friends, including Peter of course, even with doubtful glances, seemed to agree to his plan.

But Stephen…

He was offended.

“Just tell him the truth,” the sorcerer said calmly, but the annoyance was clear in his voice.

“What?” Tony frowned at him, “I can’t do that. He’ll refuse to sign the alliance.”

“So be it.” Stephen grunted. Tony kept glaring at him and then looked around to his friends searching for support, but no one in the room had the audacity to say something against the deep voice and deadly glare of the sorcerer, “it will be worse when he discovers it was all a lie”.

“He won’t”.

Peter blinked, surprised. Apparently, Tony was completely unaffected by the voice, and the glare, and the _height_. Because, yes, the king was standing next to Stephen, and he looked so _small_ next to him, but he still looked _up_ at the sorcerer to glare him _down_.

Briefly, Peter wondered how many years they had known each other. Because, well, it seemed _years_ , to be honest, given the way they talked so familiarly.

“I won’t do this”, Stephen said roundly, “I had more important things to do”.

Peter restrained himself from saying that Stephen had accepted some minutes ago to go to the party with his aunt… maybe he liked his aunt and didn’t like Tony? But… but he had said he wasn’t single, and he was obviously implying his magical marriage with Tony… wasn’t he? Or, maybe he had another wife?? No, no, Tony would NOT allow that.

Peter shifted where he was standing. Geez, he had so many questions. He looked around to see if any person in the room had the guts to ask such questions, but everybody remained silent with exasperated expressions while watching the scene in front of them, which was Stephen and Tony standing face to face, glaring at each other, forming a thick tension in the atmosphere.

This was so awkward.

“I must remind you _your_ _position_ about this,” Stephen hissed with a low voice. No one else than Tony seemed to understand what he was talking about.    

“This is a different situation,” Tony quickly said, very sure of himself, “I don’t have a choice”.

“Yes, you have.” Peter noticed the exact moment Tony realized Stephen’s increasing anger, because he saw him swallowing thickly, “You can have a conversation with him like an adult”.

“Strange-”

“I’m not a toy you can use whenever you want,” the sorcerer added more harshly.

“I’m not trying to use you! I’m asking for your help! As an ally!”

“Sure,” Stephen said sarcastically, “like you haven’t decided all of this by yourself assuming I would just do whatever you want” he leaned closer to Tony’s face, talking with his voice impossibly deeper, “You might have a lot of people who work for you, but I’m not one of them, Stark”.

The king opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it again, not knowing what to say, holding his breath, as he remained lost in the intensity of those blue eyes.

“I’m out of here.” Stephen stated, turning around to open a portal.

That got Tony out of his trance.

“I won’t ask anything else from you, I promise!” Tony rushed to stand in front of the sorcerer, “Just, please, help me with this”.

Tony was now using his big puppy eyes and Peter could see the exact moment Stephen’s determination stumbled. He didn’t know if Tony did that on purpose or not, because, well, he was born with those expressive eyes of his, but it was working nonetheless, “I’ve heard a lot of Fury. He’s not stupid,” Stephen tried one more time to reason with the king, or at least make him stop piercing him with those pleading brown orbs, but it didn’t work. And finally, he blew a sigh, “Fine.”

Immediately, Tony grinned victorious, as if he wasn’t begging a second ago, and patted the sorcerer’s chest, “There, see? I knew you’d see reason.” He said smugly and Stephen seemed a second away from strangling him. Tony ignored the glare and turned to his friends, “So, the most important thing right now-”

Then, without any warning, Strange hooked his arm around Tony’s waist, pulled him to his body and _kissed_ him.

Peter stood agape in front of them. He had seen Tony flirt with a lot of people before, but this?!

Tony was so surprised he just gasped, giving Stephen the chance to tilt his head and insert his tongue.

 _Oh my God! They’re using their tongues and my father is making weird sounds! GAH!,_ Peter covered his eyes. He wasn’t a kid but seeing your father doing these things was a higher level of awkwardness.

Then Stephen stopped the kiss, leaving Tony gasping for air and looking at him with wide eyes.

“ _The most important thing right_ _now_ is to make this right” the sorcerer said with a severe expression, stone faced, as if he wasn’t devouring Tony a second ago, “See that?” he turned his head towards Tony’s friends, and all of them had their jaws almost touching the floor, “Those are not the faces of people who ‘know’ we’re a happy couple” then he turned his eyes back to Tony, who had the same astonished expression, “And don’t make me start with _your_ face”.

“You… you asshole!” Tony pulled away stumbling backwards.

“Oh no, my love. People don’t call their husband mean names like that” the sorcerer smirked complacently at the king’s red face.

“Actually, he would.” Yinsen commented under his breath.

Stephen snorted and agreed, “I know”.

Tony lifted an accusing finger in front of him, his face still red and breath agitated, “We’re _not_ going to _snog_ in front of everybody, just so you know!”

“Then what are we going to do?” the sorcerer rolled his eyes.

“Just…!” he took a deep breath to calm himself, “We’re a civilized decent couple that keep the demonstrations of intimate affection for private moments,” he stated with a nod.

“Says the one who showed Lady Hill his bite mark” Lady Pepper mumbled to herself, but everybody heard her.

Tony turned to her, now pointing his finger at her, not believing the betrayal, “That’s totally off topic. And whose side are you?”

“Fine,” Stephen scoffed, “so we’re going to decently keep our inexistent kisses away from the public,” Peter blinked at the sarcasm, wondering if that was a soulmate thing, because his father used a lot of sarcasm, too. “What are we going to do to convince him that we are so in love with each other, King Genius?”

“Just… do what you would do if you were in love with me.” Tony decided, nodding at himself as if that were the best idea ever, and then he just looked at Strange expectantly.

Stephen stared back at him, his expression thoughtful, “I’ve never been in a serious relationship before”.

That was easy to interpret for Peter. ‘I’ve never been in love before’ he meant, and Tony seemed to understand that, too, because he was gazing back at him deeply as well.

“Oh, great.” Sir Bruce groaned and blew up their little bubble, “Two inexperienced jerks. We’re going to be here all day.”

Tony raised his eyebrows at the disrespect, “Care to share a thought, Sir Banner?” he asked with a sardonic warning tone.

“I’m sorry, Tony, I don’t have the patience for this,” Bruce said while massaging his temple, “I had the urge to throw you two in a room and lock you there for the rest of the week from the second both of you started interacting. All this sexual tension is giving me a headache.” 

Stephen and Tony both looked embarrassed now, “Se…? Watch your mouth in front of the kid!”

“Sir Banner is right,” the sorcerer agreed. “We should discuss the rest in private. The only thing they have to know is that they need to keep themselves from looking dumbfounded at us. Let’s free them from unnecessary troubles”.

“I like him.” Bruce announced as a fact, impressed at the considerate gesture. Then, he looked at Tony, “You should marry him. Like. right now”.

Tony rolled his eyes and ignored him, “Fine. Right, before ending this meeting, does anybody have a question?” Peter raised a hand, “Not you. You always have questions,” Tony looked at the others, who just shook their heads, “Good. You people are dismissed”. Everybody started walking out the room, eager to get away. “Except you, Peter.” Peter turned to him with maximum attention and expectation. Will his father finally fill up all his curiosity?

Tony motioned him to get closer, and when he approached the king’s reach, the man pushed him towards the sorcerer.

“You need some quality time with your father,” Tony said.

“What?” Stephen and Peter inquired at the same time.

“He’s going to answer any question you throw at him like the good daddy he is. Is that right, sweetheart?” he stood on tiptoe and gave Strange a smacking peck on his cheek. Stephen glared at him with his face reddening, “I’m going to take care of some things and then we’ll get you ready for the party, so meet me in my chambers in two hours. See you!” he walked away.

“Stark, we didn’t discuss the details of your idiotic plan” Stephen tried, but Tony didn’t stop.

“We’ll discuss the details of my _brilliant_ plan later. Take care of the kid!” he closed the door and he was gone.

“I’m not a kid,” Peter pouted.

“Good, so you can take care of yourself” Stephen started walking towards the door.

“But I do have a lot of questions” Peter stood in front of him stopping his escape with crossed arms. Stephen groaned in response and Peter grinned smartly, “And regardless the crazy plan, you’re King Stark’s magical husband, so you’re technically my new father, and _so_ you have to help me with my date”.

Stephen just looked at him flatly and unamused.

“I want divorce.”

Peter ignored him, “Come on! I’ll show you the castle!”

……………

“Pepper, I need your help”.

Pepper raised an eyebrow at Tony’s agitated state.

“I thought everything was ready,” she said, confused at what could be bothering Tony now if he just convinced Stephen to play along with his plan, which seemed the most difficult part.

“I need to buy some clothes,” he declared, looking away as if he were embarrassed of it.

“Tony, you have a lot of clothes” Pepper frowned, and then she put a hand on her forehead when it occurred to her what may had happened “Oh, please, don’t tell me you burnt your wardrobe… again.”

“Not for me” he rolled his eyes, “For my… _husband_ ” he said the last word as if it were something disgusting.

“Oh” Pepper digested what he had just said, and then smiled and tilted her head to look at him adorably “Aaaaww”.

“Don’t.” Tony ordered severely. “I just can’t allow him to sit next to me with those horrible robes.”

“I think he looks good”. Tony snorted at her opinion, “We don’t have a lot of time, so a tailor is out of question. We’ll have to buy finished clothes, but anyway, how are we sure what sizes to pick? Is he coming with us?”

“That’s not a problem. I know his sizes”.

Pepper nodded, but when she caught the implication of that statement, her face reddened and she looked at him with wide eyes.

Tony realized what she was thinking by the expression of her face and his own eyes widened. He covered his now red face letting out a groan of frustration, “Can you not?”

She chuckled, still a little awkward, “It’s not my fault. You’re the one letting out things that clearly involve the consummation of your marriage”.

Tony rolled his eyes, put his hands on his hips and turned all his body around to hide his face better because MY GOSH! DID SHE NEED TO SAY IT LIKE THAT?! 

Pepper chuckled again, “I’m sorry, Tony, it’s just…” she put a hand on her chest at the sight in front of her. It was so refreshing to see Tony worrying about stupid things like that instead of wars, battles and traumas, “I don’t remember seeing you this troubled and flustered. I mean, I didn’t even know you were capable of getting flustered”.

Tony spun to face her again and said very firmly, “I’m not flustered. What you see right now is my aversion to this awful situation”.

“Really?” she tilted her head, not believing a word, “But you even left him with Peter so he can spend time with him and get along”.

“What? No! I want them to hate each other!” Pepper frowned, confused at that, “Strange is obviously not a kid person and he’s going to lose his patience. Peter is going to get so bored that he’ll beg me not to marry Strange ever and I’ll add another reason to my list of one thousand reasons on why I have to keep that annoying wizard away from me,” he walked away proudly, leaving Pepper behind looking at him agape.

“Oh my God…”

………………………

“What is this?”

“Flowers” Peter answered, and when Michelle shot at him her ‘oh really’ sarcastic glare, he corrected himself quickly. “Flowers for you to discover the secret message” he smiled anxiously.

“The secret message?” she looked back curiously at the flowers in Peter’s hands.

Stephen looked at them from behind a wall feeling ridiculous but not caring about it.

Hours ago, the boy was about to blurt out all his questions about his magical marriage with Tony, but Stephen was smarter and he asked first, about the girl he liked. That way, he made Peter chatter about his beloved ‘MJ’ for two hours.

Now, Peter was about to ask her to accompany him to the party with a weird method that came to his mind in the middle of his prattling.

Peter had five specific flowers, all of them with roots and dirt because ‘MJ wouldn’t like me to kill flowers just for romantic purposes, Sir Strange!’.

He gave the girl the flowers one by one. Gladly, she seemed to be paying careful attention to that.

“Only if you’re smart enough,” Peter said smugly and Stephen face-palmed. The boy looked at him past MJ’s shoulder and immediately corrected himself, “Which you are! I’m sure you are!”

She looked at the flowers “Dahlia, Angelonia, Nerine, Camelie, Erigeron,” she glanced back at Peter raising an eyebrow “Dance?”

“You did it!” he exclaimed, “Wow, you’re amazing…” he said dreamily.

She looked at the floor, hiding her smile and her blush, “What does ‘dance’ mean?”

“Dance. Would you want to go to the party with me… and dance? I mean, we don’t have to dance if you don’t want to!”

She looked up again, about to answer, but stopped suddenly when she noticed something “Your hair is moving? Weird, there is no wind right now.”

“Uhm…” Peter glanced at Stephen for a second to see him showing him the fist of victory and support.

Because yes! Nothing looks better and cooler than hair waving with magic!

“I… would love to,” MJ answered.

“Yes!” Peter all but jumped celebrating.

“Stop overreacting, you ass, it’s just a party,” the girl scoffed flustered. “And why the roots?”

“I thought you wouldn’t like me to kill them.”

 At that, she looked up at him surprised, then she smiled brilliantly, and gave him a sweet peck on the cheek, leaving him frozen.

“See you later,” she said and walked away with the flowers.

Stephen approached the prettified boy when she left completely.

“Smart move, Peter,” he congratulated giving him some pats on the back to bring him back to Earth.

“It worked!” Peter exclaimed in bliss and Stephen regretted not having let him spaced out. Quiet was better, “Thank you for your help.”

“Of course it worked, it was your idea. It’s a good thing you know her so well.  And you don’t need to thank me, I didn’t do anything.”

“Yes, it was my idea, but you kept asking me about her and that’s how I came up with that idea” he smiled up at the sorcerer. Stephen wanted to snort at that, because that was just his way to avoid the boy’s questions, “And you helped me find the flowers”.

“Anything for my son” he said playfully, and then regretted it immediately, knowing that it would remind the boy about the subject.

He saw Peter’s face becoming serious and Stephen cursed his own mouth internally, “Are you really going to break the soul bond you have with my father?”

And there it was.

“Yes” Stephen answered shortly, “That’s what he wants”.

“And what do you want?”

“The same,” he shrugged.

“Really?” Peter frowned, “I don’t know much about soulmates and such, but it sounds important”.

The boy was smart, and Stephen felt like an idiot for feeling proud about it. _He’s not your son_ , he told himself while rolling his eyes, “The soul bonding wasn’t planned”.

“Yes, but,” Peter paused a moment to think, “You know, it wouldn’t bother me. I’m used to unexpected things happening in my life, and if all of the sudden I have a second father, I wouldn’t mind, really, I just want him to be happy”.

Stephen’s face softened at that. Becoming familiar with the boy wasn’t a good idea, he shouldn’t have allowed it, “Breaking the soul bond would make him happy” he insisted.

“Is that what he told you? Because, most of the time, he’s not honest with his feelings.” Peter insisted, too.

“As far as I know, he’s been through a lot of sorrow regarding manipulation with magic. I’m afraid I can’t change his mind about his decision,” he forced himself to remain the most expressionless as possible. He didn’t want to give away how much it hurt him. It was dumb, really, but the fact of having met Tony just some days ago wasn’t making it easier for him. He knew he needed more to call it love, but every part of him, every inch of his being, was attracted to the king and that didn’t happen after the soul bond, so he couldn’t blame it for that. Yes, using logic he concluded the king was nothing but trouble and that he, as a trouble person himself, wanted nothing to do with him, but he felt so dragged to him it was impossible to ignore.

And it hurt to know Tony despised the bond, giving away how much he despised _him_.

He couldn’t blame him, though. He’d probably feel the same way if magic itself were the center of his nightmares.

“But you’re not like that, are you?” Peter insisted. The boy seemed eager for his father to finally find someone who could love him and take care of him. Stephen couldn’t blame him for that, “You wouldn’t manipulate him with magic, would you?”

“Never,” Stephen answered sincerely.

The boy smiled brightly at that, “That’s it then! Just show him you’re worth it!”

“Worth of what?”

Peter blinked, “Of his love?”

Stephen sighed, “Look, I know you want to help your father with his love life, but this is already settled. We’re going to break the bond, and that’s it,” the sorcerer said roundly.

Peter’s face fell, “Wow, you dislike him that much?”

Stephen closed his eyes softly, letting out the air of his lungs. He opened his eyes again to answer, but kept his gaze on the floor, “Yes.”

Peter was young and inexperienced in a lot of things, but he recognized sadness when he saw it. And, of course, Stephen’s expression didn’t go unnoticed. So, Peter made a very solid and valid conclusion: _Oh my God, Sir Stephen is in love with my father and he’s proving his love letting him go as he asked because he thinks that’s going to make him happy!!!_

Strange raised an eyebrow at him. He knew he did something wrong when he saw Peter smiling excitedly at him.

“Your majesty!”

They both turned at the voice and saw a servant approaching. Stephen stepped aside to let him go to Peter, thinking he was talking to him, but the man came directly to the sorcerer instead.

“My liege” the manservant bowed in front of Stephen making him frown in confusion, “the king requires your presence in his chambers”.

“Uh…” Stephen looked at Peter, thinking the servant was mistaking him with someone else, but Peter just nodded at him.

“Please, follow me, your majesty” the servant insisted.

“There is no need to call me that,” the sorcerer asked politely.

“Of course there is!” the servant looked absolutely scandalized at the request, “You’re King Stark’s husband!”

It was Stephen’s turn to look surprised, “I… he told you that?”

“Lady Virginia informed all the servants, yes” the man nodded.

Strange blew out a sigh. Oh God, now the entire castle knew? “Fine”. He followed the servant with an annoyed expression.

Peter chuckled, “See you later, _dad_!”

He couldn’t believe that even the kid gave himself the fun to tease him.

…………………

Stephen didn’t bother having the politeness of knocking the door because he wasn’t in the mood.

“Darling!” Tony greeted him with a big smile and approached when the sorcerer remained on his spot with his back to the closed door. “Missed me?” the mischief in his brown eyes were obvious. He knew Stephen was aggravated.

“Yes, my sweet bipolar husband.” he answered dripping sugar with his voice sarcastically.

“It’s called acting, Strange” the king snapped and turned to walk towards his bed.

“Well, your acting is awful. We’re doomed,” Strange said sincerely and very unimpressed.

Tony just stuck out his tongue at him.

 _Ugh, he’s such a brat,_ Stephen grimaced.

Tony gestured him to come closer, “I bought you something”. When Stephen stood close in front of him, he held up a tunic to his chest. “You’ll wear it for the party, which means right now”, Stephen narrowed his eyes and examined the cloth while Tony added “And no cape”.

The king smirked with the satisfaction of seeing the insufferable rug _frown_ at him with its collar. 

“It’s a cloak,” the sorcerer corrected offended, “And I don’t need new clothes,” he stated, and there was again Tony’s glare with those big eyes of his that only made him look adorable. Strange rolled his eyes at his own thoughts, “Fine” he relented and started to undress.

“Go behind the screen, you dolt!” Tony exclaimed looking away.

Stephen startled at the sudden scolding. He was shirtless and about to take off his pants when he turned to see the folding screen he wasn’t used to because he didn’t have one at home, “Oh, yes. Sorry.”

Tony huffed and crossed his arms, not daring to look in Stephen’s direction even when the man was behind the screen. Ok, maybe he did glance at the muscled back when the sorcerer walked towards the screen, but that didn’t matter.

Stephen walked out from behind the screen a minute later and Tony tried to look unimpressed and unaffected but internally he liked what his eyes were seeing.

“Why is it red?” Stephen asked, making it obvious he didn’t like the bright color, much to Tony’s enjoyment. 

“I like red” Tony simply said.

“Well, I…” the sorcerer started, but paused when his Cloak floated closer, obviously wanting to hear his opinion, “… like red, too” he forced himself to say because the Cloak of Levitation had, well, _feelings_ , “But you’re not wearing red” he observed looking at Tony, who was wearing a combination of black and brown.

“Oh, stop complaining. You look good” he drifted closer to take a better look at him, staring up and down. Stephen just stared back, raising an eyebrow. Tony cleared his throat glancing at the blue eyes again and couldn’t help patting the sorcerer’s chest, “It brings out your pectorals”, he absently started to adjust the collar of Stephen’s tunic without needing while the sorcerer grimaced at his last statement because what the fuck “There. You’re ready now, my husband” the king said sweetly.

Stephen titled his head to the side, examining Tony’s face with judgment, “Fury won’t believe a thing if you keep saying that word with such falsity. Just call me Stephen”.

“Oh, and you are so good at pretending, huh?” Tony folded his arms.

Stephen just smiled at him, with those sapphire eyes of his full of affection that made Tony tense with anticipation, “I’m not good either” he whispered and leaned a little closer to him. Tony held his breath at the proximity. Stephen’s presence was intoxicating, his eyes hypnotizing, his voice mesmerizing, Tony wanted so much to… _no no no, it’s the bond, it’s just the bond!_ “I think we should practice…” at that point Tony just closed his eyes instinctively when he felt Stephen’s breath ghosting on his lips. He didn’t see the sorcerer stopping midway and smiling smugly, “… our lines” he finished and walked past him to sit on the bed.

Tony opened his eyes and blinked, stiffed on the spot. _What the hell?!!!_

He cursed internally at his own stupid reactions. Really, he hated this dumb bond making him act like a love-starved idiot!

“Lines?” he repeated incredulously and turned around after composing himself, “What? You want us to write and memorize an entire script?”

“I have eidetic memory,” Stephen said smirking, as if that were really the plan. He chuckled when Tony glared, and shook his head, “No, I want us to match our stories.”

Tony started suggesting their encounter different, trading it for something more romantic and dramatic, like ‘and you were about to die and I, your brave knight in shining armor, appeared riding my majestic horse and saved your sorry ass’.

Stephen just rolled his eyes and, of course, insisted on maintaining the story as it was, omitting the ‘wanting to undo it’ part, because it was easier than lying.

“I still think you should just tell him all the truth” Stephen made one last attempt, this time not being defensive or attacking, he was just being honest, using the kindest tone he had, “he’ll understand”.  

Tony snorted, “You don’t know him as well as I know him”.

“And he doesn’t know you enough if he thinks that you need a man by your side to be a whole” the sorcerer said, and Tony looked up surprised, “Soulmates are not there to fix each other. Yes, together they make things better than they are, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be good on our own.  You achieved great things on your own, Tony, so did I.”

Despite his heart fluttering uncontrollably at the sorcerer’s words, Tony shook his head vehemently, “No. I had help” he assured, “I’ve always had help.”

“Yes, because you’re surrounded by great people, and they remain by your side for who you are, for what you defend and believe”

Tony swallowed and glanced down, hiding his eyes from the penetrant green-blue orbs of the sorcerer. The king just chuckled as if it didn’t matter, but the wavering on his voice said something else, “No, they remain by my side because otherwise I’d make a disaster of this kingdom and myself” he smiled, but the smile never reached his eyes.

Stephen blinked stunned, now getting to know a new part of Tony Stark. The arrogance, the selfishness, the overconfidence… at the end, it was all a façade to hide insecurities, fears and hollowness. And once again, he found something about the king he could perfectly understand. “Tony…”

Tony quickly interrupted him, “I just… want to get over with this.”

………………………

“There you are!”

Stephen turned to find Christine and Wong walking to him with very impatient expressions on their faces.

“Time to go” Christine said, but stopped frozen when she noticed Stephen’s clothes, “What are you wearing?”

“Royal clothes” Stephen answered simply, and when they kept staring at him waiting for a better explanation, he decided to relent with an ‘I’m so done’ expression, “Stark has a party where he’s going to seal an alliance with King Fury. For some bizarre reason, King Fury likes our magical marriage. Stark wants me to pretend to be his not accidental but real husband. So here I am. A married man and a father to a teenager” he opened his arms wide to present himself dramatically, “Take into consideration that this is all your fault for leaving me alone in this crazy kingdom. Any other question?”

His friends just stared indifferently.

“Are we invited?” Wong asked.

Stephen rolled his eyes. Why did he think he’d have some support?

Christine chuckled at his mortified face and stepped closer, “Such predicament you got yourself in, uh?” she checked out his clothes while nodding to herself, “But you look handsome”.

“Of course he does” someone interrupted the conversation, and when Stephen felt his arm being held by two hands, he turned to find Tony by his side, “I chose his clothes” the king said proudly, tugging the sorcerer closer to him, hooking his arm tighter with his, “Ready, my love?” he asked sweetly looking up at Stephen.

The sorcerer smirked down at the king, “I was born ready, my beautiful apple pie.”

Christine and Wong looked dumbfounded at them, “Wow, you two are very bad at this. He’s not going to believe a word” Christine opined.

Stephen huffed, “That’s what I’ve been trying to say to this coxcomb”.

Tony gasped, “Coxcomb your ass, you cabbage head!”

And there they were, arms hooked, trying to kill each other with their eyes.

Christine hummed “Now _that_ is more believable”. Wong nodded in agreement.

Tony grumbled, “Whatever, let’s go” he tugged Stephen with him walking towards the entrance of the castle, where they saw King Fury approaching, just getting down from his horse and some knights and servants of his accompanying him.

Stephen leaned closer to Tony to mumble, “Wouldn’t it be wiser to let Fury rest from his long journey before the feast?”

“He’s going to leave tomorrow morning. He has a lot of things to do,” Tony mumbled back, just before reaching the other king and put his best diplomatic smile on his face. “King Fury! So good to see you. I hope you had a nice journey” he greeted shaking his hand.

“Thank you. It’s always good to see you, too, Stark,” Fury smiled back and then turned his attention to Stephen, “This must be Stephen Strange. I was looking forward to meet you.”

The sorcerer smiled at him. He really didn’t see the reason of so much drama, Fury seemed to be like some kind of uncle for Tony in Stephen’s eyes. Maybe Tony didn’t think the man would hold that kind of appreciation for him? 

“Likewise, your majesty” Stephen shook the offered hand, and was grateful for the gentle grip.

“How’s your new life in the castle?” Fury asked the sorcerer casually and Tony’s jaw tensed, sensing the beginning of the _test_. “It must have been a big change for you”.

Stark looked up at Stephen, begging internally for him to give a good answer.

Stephen just huffed and smiled naturally, “Yes, it’s a big change, and sometimes it’s a real pain,” he chuckled and then looked down to meet Tony’s gaze, kindness dripping from his expression, “But it’s worth it”. 

 “I can see that” Fury commented amused, making them look at him again, “Let’s go then. I’ve been informed a feast was waiting for me”.

“A feast and an alliance to sign, of course” Stephen reminded him.

………………………

Tony knew how to be diplomatic and how to make a good act in front of nobles, but it wasn’t the same with people who worked with him directly at some point with more personal interactions and more important matters than just good relationships between kingdoms, which was Fury’s case. Fury wasn’t just any kind of noble, he’d seen Tony at his worst, and he knew a lot of his fears and demons. That was why he was already regretting this plan…

But… but Pepper approved it, right? Normally, his close friends were the ones to pull Tony out of his bad ideas, but this time it was Pepper’s idea to begin with, and Pepper was brilliant… right?

Tony gulped. Maybe Pepper just gave him too much credit, thinking that he wouldn’t screw this up.

What if something stupid slipped from his mouth? What if Fury made a question they couldn’t answer? What if…?

“Stop being so tense” Stephen’s deep voice pulled him back to the present: People sitting at the big table, dinning and chatting under the melody of the music. 

“Easy to say” he replied releasing his breath, “Did you notice? He asked to sign the alliance later. He’s testing us.”

“Tony” Stephen tried.

“He’s seeing us… with his _eye_ ”.

Tony heard Stephen huff and the sorcerer didn’t say anything else for a moment, instead he felt a trembling and gentle touch covering his hand on the table. The king glanced, finding Stephen’s hand on his.

“It’s going to be alright,” the sorcerer assured with a smile and Tony found himself chuckling and forgetting his problems for a second.

“So,” Tony started with a smirk, “you’ve never been in love before, huh?” Stephen frowned in confusion at that, “Something tells me you’d be _handsy,_ ” the king said looking back at their joined hands.

Stephen pulled his hand away immediately, his expression ashamed, “I’m sorry” he muttered and hid both his scarred hands under the table and looked down at his plate.

A sudden twinge nested on Tony’s chest at the reaction. Stephen thought he wanted him to remove his hand. He hadn’t meant it like that. He liked Stephen’s hands; he wanted his hand back.

But he couldn’t just say that, could he?

Tony tensed again.

 

And Stephen felt it.

Some minutes passed and then Stephen took a deep breath looking at the ceiling. He knew Tony was nervous, this was not the time to make it worse with self consciousness. He already went past the phase of being ashamed because of his hands, he learned to appreciate his scars as a reminder of his own growth as a better person, that’s why he didn’t use gloves anymore. It just took him by surprise. That was all.

He looked at Fury. He was distracted telling an anecdote about some battle of his. Everyone smiled or laughed and the king looked very cheerful. Tony laughed, too, but his hands on the table were moving, his fingers tapping repeatedly.     

Stephen rolled his eyes and put his hand on Tony’s again, making him jerk a little as he expected.

Tony looked at him surprised. “Let’s dance?” Stephen asked, gently but clearly with a purpose.

The king stood up with him and walked with him toward the group of people who were dancing.

Stephen’s hand on his and the other on his back, Tony let him lead through the slow elegant dance while expecting him to say something.

“Okay, what’s got you so troubled?” the sorcerer asked leaning a little closer.

“Did you notice? He never laughs that much. He’s serious and boring and the don’t-joke-with-me kind of man you like to joke around a lot just to bug him” Tony blurted and winced.

“Maybe he’s just happy” the sorcerer shrugged.

“He’s going to do or say something tricky”.

Stephen nodded and calmly stated “So far, he didn’t make a single question about our soul bond though”.

“That’s a bad sign” Tony quickly assured.

Stephen sighed, he really wanted to say the right thing to make the situation easier, “We reviewed every possible question, Tony”.

“Not every possible question,” Tony refuted quickly again. Stephen’s eyebrows shot up at that. Obviously, there was something very specific in Tony’s mind.

“Example?” the sorcerer asked patiently.

Tony grimaced looking at his feet for a moment. Clearly, the question was either ridiculous or uncomfortable for him, “What would you say if he asks what you like about me?” he asked looking up at him while titling his head.

Stephen smirked, “Your beautiful personality”.

The sorcerer chuckled when Tony slapped his shoulder, “I’m serious, you ass!” he whistled.

“See? Adorable” he said it sarcastically, but internally he really thought Tony’s pout was cute.

“Come on” Tony groaned.

“Well…” Stephen thought a little, “I like your posture”.

Tony frowned confused, “My posture? You mean, what, the way I stand?”

“Yes.” The taller man reiterated with no doubt or sarcasm in his voice, “Posture says a lot of a person, and yours is majestic”.

Tony raised an eyebrow, obviously finding it hard to believe, but since the sorcerer seemed serious, his curiosity emerged, “What’s so special about it?”

“You puff out your chest and your back makes a perfect curve” Stephen explained, drawing the _curve_ on Tony’s back slowly from his nape to the exact point where the back was not _back_ anymore.

Tony startled and shivered at the touch. Then he glared at Stephen, who was smiling “innocently” at him.       

“You like my ass” Tony deadpanned.  

Stephen blinked, and then rolled his eyes, “No.” _Well_ , _Yes! But I wasn’t talking about that!_ “I try to politely compliment you and you make a pervert out of me?” he buffed offended.

“Well, try with something else.” Tony looked away sulkily.

Stephen examined his expression quietly for a moment.

“Tony” he started softly, that made Tony look at him again, “You talk like it’s difficult to find something likable about you”.

Tony chuckled humorlessly, “My, Sir Stephen” he smirked pretentiously and Stephen frowned, “Be careful. You talk like it’s easy to find something likable about me. I might start thinking you don’t really disli-”

Stephen closed all distance between their bodies and kissed him.

Yes, he knew it was out of the rules he imposed to himself, but he couldn’t help it. Tony Stark, _King_ Tony Stark, was an _idiot_.

The man sometimes acted like he was the most desired human being in the world, but it seemed that he, in fact, thought that he didn’t deserve true affection. That bothered Stephen so much because he was actually able to see why Tony felt like that, and he didn’t like it at all. The worst part was that he also knew that words wouldn’t fix anything, words wouldn’t make Tony feel better, so he _acted_ , trying to pour his feelings into the kiss, letting him feel how precious he was.

For a second he expected Tony to push him away, but instead the king melted in his arms and held the sorcerer’s neck to deepen the kiss.

“I think it’s a little early to get intimate, gentlemen.”

Pepper’s amused voice made them jump in surprise. They pulled apart quickly, remembering they were surrounded by a lot of people. And now, almost everyone was looking at them. Gladly, everyone continued dancing and minding his own business after two seconds.

Tony glared at Stephen, though it wasn’t very threatening with his cheeks and ears as red as the sorcerer’s. 

“I told you not to snog me in front of people!” the king hissed at the taller man.

Stephen cleared his throat, trying to dissipate some of his own nervousness, “I didn’t hear you complaining,” he mumbled raising an eyebrow.

“I’m complaining right now!”

The sorcerer chuckled and caressed Tony’s cheek with one hand gently, which totally took the king off guard.

Stephen gave him a quick sweet peck on the lips and his heart fluttered pleased when he saw Tony closing his eyes instinctively to receive his kiss, and it was so adorable he had to keep himself from giving him another one.

The king blinked confused and Stephen winked at him, then pointed with his eyes in Fury’s direction with a knowing smirk, “You don’t need to worry”.

Tony let out a breathy chuckle and rolled his eyes, looking much more relaxed now.

…………………………

Tony relaxed too much…

King Fury asked to sign the alliance some minutes after the dance and now Tony was almost putting his feet on the table. That much of relaxed he was.

Maybe it also had to do with the considerable amount of wine the king poured into his system.

“Do you want to know why I’m using this ugly tunic?” Tony asked Fury with a smirk, his hand already grabbing the collar of his tunic with the clear intention to show his neck.

Stephen almost spat out the water he was drinking.

“Tony!” Stephen tried his best not to sound alarmed (he tried), and held Tony’s hand just in time, leaning on the little shit’s back to grab him by his waist, “If you’ll excuse us, your majesty, we’ll retire for the night.” He said politely and Fury just chuckled knowingly, finding the red on Stephen’s cheeks very amusing. The sorcerer pretended not to notice, “Please, feel free to enjoy the rest of the party.”

He tugged Tony with him, relieved to see the king cooperating without fight. He was just making himself heavier while clinging to Stephen’s arm, but Stephen could deal with it.

……………………………

“So? What do you think?” Lady Hill asked confidently after the couple left.

Fury grabbed a bread from his plate and chuckled, “Oh, they are both idiots” he said fondly and bit the bread.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! I'm sorry this took so long to update. Life keeps me from the things I like. I made the resolution to finish this before 'Avengers: Endgame' so let's hope I'll do it! Next chapter will come very soon!

**Author's Note:**

> The medieval soulmate AU nobody asked for :)


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